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GEORGE F. HOAR 



HISTORIC HOMES AND INSTITUTIONS 

AND 

GENEALOGICAL AND PERSONAL MEMOIRS 

OF 

WORCESTER COUNTY 

MASSACHUSETTS 



WITH A HISTORY OF 



WORCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY 



PREPARED UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF 

ELLERY BICKNELL CRANE 

Librarian of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, and Editor of its Proceedings; 

Author of "The Rawson Family Memorial," "Crane 

Family," two vols.. Etc. 



Knowledge of kindred and the genealogies of the ancient families deserveth the highest 
praise. Herein consisteth a part of the knowledge of a man's otvn self. ' It is a great spur to 
virtue to look back on the work of our lines." — Lord Bacon. 

''There is no heroic poem in the rvorld hut is at the bottom the^Jife of a man." — Sir 
Walter Scott.  - :.-■■'_ ; , ; 



Vol. I ^\^^\^innt- 



I i^i^iLj STri^.^Tr E^nz) 



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NEW YORK CHICAGO 

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1907 



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INTRODUCTORY 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



The history of Massachusetts — civil, political and military — has been written bj' 
various authors and at various times, each succeeding writer adding a new chapter of 
annals, or treating his subject from a different viewpoint. Such history, however, splendid 
narrative that it is, is principally concerned with what has been accomplished b}' the peo- 
ple in a mass, and takes little note of individuals, except those so pre-eminent as leaders as 
to come under the full glare of fame. 

Hence it follows that genealogical and family memoirs are of peculiar importance, 
incUulino- as they dn. the personal annals of those who make heroes and heroism possible — 

those who have marched in the ranks of 
progress, bearing the heat and burden of 
the day, — portraying the spirit which 
actuated them, and holding up their 
effort for an example to those who come 
afterward. ^ As was written by Marti- 
neau, "To have forefathers renowned for 
honorable deeds, to belong by nature to 
those who have bravely borne their part 
in life and refreshed the world with 
might)' thoughts and healthy admiration, 
is a privilege which it were mean and 
self-willed to despise. It is a security 
given for us of old, which it were false- 
hearted not to redeem ; and in virtues 
bred of a noble stock, mellowed as they 
The home of Col. William Prescott. second son of Benjamin are bv reverence, there is often a ffrace 

Prescott. and the grandfather of William H. Prescott, the distin- "^ ° 

guished historian. Col. Prescott was born in Groton. and settled on a andripeneSS Wantingf tO Self-madcand 

large tract of land previously owned by his father, located in what 

was called the "Gore." later included in the town of Pepperell. He brand-UeW excellence. Of likcvaluetO 

served as a Lieutenant in the expedition sent in 17.5.^. to remove the 

French Neutrals from Nova Scotia; and as colonel of the Minuie Men a Deople are heroic national traditions 

enrolled in and about Groton in 1774. At the battle of Bunker Hill. . 

June 17 177n. he occupied the distinguished position of Commander Efivingthem a determined character tO 

of the American forces. He died October 13. 17S).=). aged sixty-nine 

Xf^'^i■,,''^'''°5 ''?';° ^°'°, Fe'""uaiy 30. 1736. His widow died October sustain among the tribes of men makinsr 

.Jl. 1831. aged eighty-eight years; both buried at Pepperell. . . j & 

them familiar with images of great and 
strenuous life, and kindling them with faith in glorious possibilities." 

The county of Worcester affords a peculiarly interesting field for a study of family 
traits, individual character and personal achievements. It is rich in historical associations, 
and Its soil has been the scene of events of the utmost importance to the entire nation. To 
it came a sturdy people, men and women, too, of brawn and brain and conscience, their 
hearts fervent in reverence of God and love for religious and political liberty. They came 




Prescott Homestead, at Pepperell 



IV 



INTRODUCTORY 




Isaiah Thomas, LL. D. 
Founder of " Massachusetts Spy." and Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Soriety. born July 30, 
1749, died ApriU.lS31, in Worcester. 



up out of g^reat tribulations. They were of that overflow of Pilgrim and Puritan stock 
which traversed an unbroken wilderness to make homes where were savages, and to con- 
quer primeval nature. They buikied better than they knew. 

" For Good is not a shapely mass of stone, 

Hewn by man's hand, and worked by him alone. 

It is a seed God suffers h\m to sow — 

Others wiH reap, and, when the harvests grow, 

He giveth increase through all coming years, 

And lets men reap in joy, seed that was sown in tears." 

Simple and clean in their lives, as were these 
early settlers, the homes which they builded were hum- 
ble, but thev were the seat of all the virtues that consti- 
tute ideal manhood and womanhood. The courage, 
fortitude and activity' displayed by these hardy pioneers 
was most remarkable, and, when the struggle for na- 
tional independence came, the sons and daughters of 
these illustrious sires were not wanting in patriotism 
and devotion, freely sacrificing comfort, life and prop- 
erty, that they inight bequeath to the generations that 
should follow them a free liberal government "of the 
people, by the people, and for the people." They were, 
from the beginning, prime movers in every patriotic movement, and in all looking to the 
elevation of humanity. In 1775, in convention assembled, they expressed their abhorrence 
of human slavery, and that, whenever opportunity should present, they would use their 
influence toward the emancipation of the negro. From here, their birthplace, marched 
Captain (later known as Colonel) Timothy Bigelow and Captain Benjamin Flagg — with 
their companies of minute-men on that 
memorable I9th of April, 1775, and 
here, in the city of Worcester, the 
Declaration of Independence was first 
read m Massachusetts. Here, too, was 
the home of General Artemas Ward, 
the trusted friend and chief lieutenant 
of the great Washington. In Worces- 
ter was set up, by Isaiah Thomas, 
the fir.^t printing press in an inland 
town in Massachusetts, and the jour- 
nal which was piliited from it was one 
which was unparalleled in its influ- 
ence upon the minds of the coinmon 
people in their ready espousal of the 
cause of independence from British 
tyranny. Here entered upon his illus- 
tiious career Levi Lincoln, one of the 
giants in those days— a great lawyer, jurist -and statesman. Heie lived and labored repre- 
sentatives of the famous Prescott, Curtis, Allen, Washburn and Devoiis families and here 
was born George Bancroft, the historian. Here, too, were heard, at various periods, 
Webster, Sumner, Lincoln, Henry Wilson and Henry Ward Beecher, and, in the yet later 




Faknvm House. Uxbridge 

Built by Moses Farnum in 1766. and stands in the southerly part of the 
town o! Uxbridye. 




NA'oRCESTER Art Museum. Salisbury Street. Worcester 



VI 



INTRODUCTORY 



■■/v., '-"^ 




days, the lamented Senator George F. Hoar, all eloquent proclaimers of liberty and plead- 
ers for humanity. And, in the Civil war, the grandsons of the men of Bunker Hill fought 
at Gettysburg, and on many another glorious field, that the Union might be preserved. 

There were not only patriots among the settlers of Worcester countj, but men of 
special note in various fields of industry. Perhaps no spot of the same area on this conti- 
nent has produced so many of superior mechanical genius, or those who have given to the 
woild mechanisms of such great utility and advantage to 

the progress of civilization. Senator Hoar, in a speech >#iP*^~ 

made before the United States Senate, on January 6, ^ 

190B, said; "Within twelve miles of the spot where 1 
live, was born Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton 
gin, who doubled the value of every acre of land in this 
country on which cotton can grow. Six miles in anol her 
direction was born Erastus Bigelow, the inventor of the 
carpet machine. Six miles in another direction lived 
Blanchard, the inventor of the machine for turning irreg- 
ular forms, perhaps the most important single meclian- 
ical invention that has been made in the country down 
to this time. Eight miles another way was born Whitie- 
more, inventor of the card clothing machine. Twelve 
miles another way was born and lived Elias Howe, inven- 
tor of the sewing machine. When the Civil war broke 
out, Mr. Howe enlisted as private. When, in its em- 
barrassment, in the summer of 1861, the government 
could not pay its soldiers, this private soldier drew his 
check for all the arrears due his regiment of a thousand 
men, for some months. * * * AH around me there are 
homesteads, some bordering rny own, owned by invent- 
ors, foremen and skilled workmen, who have acquired 
fortunes in this honorable service, -so beneficent to mankind and so honorable to this 
country." 

The founders of the olden time, who laid the foundations for the development of the 
present, left not only a sjjlendid posterity on this their own soil, but they gave a pregnant 
interpretation to the words of Bishop Berkley : "Westward the course of the empire 
takes its way," for from them came an overflow which was destined to continue until it 
reached the far-oflF Pacific — men and women to carry forth and perpetuate that plain, sturdy, 
personal character of manhood and womanhood for which the people of Massachusetts 
have gained a large degree of renown. Wherever they planted their homes, there the 
church and the school house are found as monuments of their personality. Nor is this all,^ 
they prided themselves in thrift, and the reward that comes as the fruit of honest toil and 
endeavor ; and, wherever placed, have proved a power for ideal citizenship and good gov- 
ernment, for that righteousness which exalteth a nation. 

In each generation and at every stage of progress, the people of Worcester county 
have had the service of men of the loftiest character and highest capability — in arms, in the 
arts of peace, in statesmanship, in affairs, and in letters. It is to connect the active pro- 
gressive men of the present generation with their illustrious ancestry, that the present vol- 
umes were undertaken, in the conviction that 



Major GtiNERAL Artemas Ward 

Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. 
October 27. 1774; General in the Continental 
army -. Commander-in-Chit-f of the Massachu- 
setts forces. May 1?. 1775. liorn in Shrews- 
bury. Massachusetts, November 26. 1727. son 
of Nahum and Martha (Howe) Ward. As 
Major took part in the campaitn of 1755 
against the I'r'^nch. near Lake Cliamplain, at- 
taing the rank of colonel. Member of the 
Massachusetts Legislature for sixteen years; 
Speaker of that body 17^5; Member of Congress 
1791-95: died in Shrewsbury October 27. 1800. 



INTRODUCTORY 



vu 




Governor Levi Lincoln 



" [t is indeed a blessing when the virtues 
Of noble races are hereditary, 
And do derive themselves from imitation 
Of virtuous ancestors." 

The honorable ancestry which belongs to the people of Worcester county is a noble 

heritage, and the story of its achievements is a sacred 
trust committed to its descendants, upon whom devolves 
the perpetuation of their record. History is constantly 
making, and that of yesterday and today is as important 
in its place as that of the centuries past. Throughout 
the country are those who are memorialized in its pages, 
through whose sagacity, determination and philanthropy, 
states and communities have been benefited in material 
ways, and in religious, educational and political affairs — 
in all that stands for progress and improvement. 

It was the consensus of opinion of leading men in 
Worcester county — men well informed and loyal to the 
memories of the past, who were consulted with refer- 
ence to the matter — that the editorial supervision of Mr. 
Ellery Bicknell Crane in the preparation of the work, 
would insure the best result? attainable in these deeply 
interesting channels. For fifteen years the President 
of the Worcester Society of Antiquity, and the present 
librarian of that body and the editor of its " Proceed- 

Continued in the office of Governor for nine . ,i i i i , , i • ^ t j - ii_ •*. 

successive re-eieciions. until, declining to be a ings, he has long been deeply interested in the pursuit 

candidate for re-election, retired from the - , . , . - ... « ,.,■ , 

office on the induction of his successor, in Jan- of genealogical information in the county ot Worcester, 

u-iry. 1834. Chosen member of 24th Coneress. ,,• -ii 11 ii 1 i*ii.L' 

Both Harvard and Williams coiieee conferred and his Wide knowledge and the ample material at riis 

upon him the degree of LL. D. He was born ,.,,., r t 1 i.- j • 1. 

October 25, 17S2: died May 38. 1868. command in the library of the above mentioned society 

have afforded to the local writers upon this work a rich mine of information along the 
lines prescribed, and through his instrumentality, also, they have had access to the wealth 
of historical and genealogical records 
in the archives of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, through the courtesy 
of its librarian, Mr. Edmund M. Bar- 
ton. Mr. Crane has also contributed 
to these pages a historical sketch of 
the Worcester Society of Antiquity, 
including a brief notice of the Amer- 
ican Antiquarian Society. The pub- 
lishers have given all possible care 
with reference to the family and per- 
sonal narratives. If, in any case, one 
should be found incomplete or faulty, 
the shortcoming is ascribable to the 
paucity of data furnished by the sub- 
scriber, or to be obtained from public 
record, many families being withoutex- 
act records in their family line ; while. 



•^***^ 




Bancroft House. Worcester 

The home of Rev. Aaron Bancroft, in Worcester, Massachusetts. 
Here was born George Bancroft, the Historian, October 3, 1800, son of 
Rev. Aaron and Lucretia (Chandler^ Bancroft. 




?T 








\ lliWS OF POLVlbCHMC iNbTITL'TE. WOKCESTER 



INTRODUCTORY ix 

in c ses, various representatives of a family are at disagreement as to names and dates 

of ! their forbears. In all cases the sketch has been submitted to the subject or his 

rep tive, and upon him, in case of error, must rest the ultimate responsibility. 

s believed that the present work will prove a real addition to the mass of litera- 
tur rning the families of historic old Worcester county, and that, without it, much 

valuable information contained therein would be inaccessible to the general reader, or 
irretrievably lost, owing to the passing away of many custodians of family records, and the 
consequent disappearance of material in their possession. 

THE PUBLISHERS. 



WODCESTEII SOCIETY OF ANTIOUITr 




Worcester Society of Antiquity 



On the third day of May, 1775, was issued 
the first copy of the Massachusetts Spy, printed 
in Worcester, by Isaiah Thomas, since which 
date this town (now city), the heart of the 
Commonwealth, has been a prominent news 
center. 

Worcester has also been a great book 
publishing center, 'The Royal Standard 
English Dictionary " (Perry's), the first dict- 
ionar}' published in America, was printed here 
by Mr. Thomas, as was also the first music 
books printed from types, music having been 
previously printed from engraved plates. 
Various editions of dictionaries, lexicons. Bibles, medical works, law books and standard 
works in historj- and general literature, were printed and kept on sale here. The Koran 
was printed here in 1806, a Greek Lexicon in 1808; Plutarch's Lives, in six volumes 
(1802); Josephus, in six volumes (1794). A folio edition of the Bible published in 1791, 
illustrated with fifty copper-plate engravings, furnishes a fine specimen of the work of 
Mr. Thomas. Almanacs, sermons, school books, broadsides and works on nearly every 
branch of literature of that period, came from the press (or, rather, presses) of Mr. 
Thomas. 

Thus were the people of Worcester early given special opportunity to learn the use 
and value of books, acquiring more or less an honest desire for them, and to appreciate 
the benefits of the knowledge to be gained through their use. The addresses and patriotic 
utterances distributed among the people of New England through the circulation of the 
Massachusetts Spy, had much to do with stimulating the spirit and feeling of resistance to 
the arbitrary measures inaugurated by the government of Great Britain. And, after the 
contest was over, and the independence of the United States secured, the influence of the 
editor and publisher of that organ was exerted for the establishment of a society that 
should bring together and preserve the mementoes of that heroic struggle, and also become 
an institution that should take its place among the prominent historical societies in Eng- 
land, France and other countries of Europe. 

With that object in view, the American Antiquarian Society was formed in the year 
1812. Its membership included representative men from the various States in the 
Union. The printer, and founder of the society, Isaiah Thomas, LL. D., was its first 
president. The first home or hall of this Society was a brick building, with a main up- 
right part two stories in height, and a wing extending out on the north and also one 
on the south side. The main or center portion of this building was dedicated on August 
24, 1820, and the two wings added about eleven years later. This home, known as 
Antiquarian Hall, stood on the easterly side of Summer street, near the corner of Belmont 
street, and was built at the expense of Mr. Thomas, on a lot of land which he owned and 
subsequently gave, by will, to the Society. In 1852 it was found necessary to have more 
commodious quarters to accommodate the needs of the American Antiquarian Society, 



xii WORCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY 

and land was given by Honorable Stephen Salisbury, father of the late Honorable Stephen 
Salisbury, as a site for their neiu building, which now stands at the corner of Highland 
street and Main street, next north of the Court House, and is the present home of this 
most popular national institution. 

In the year 1820, of the eighty-three names on the membership roll, twenty-four 
were residents of Massachusetts, ten of whom resided in Worcester, the remainder of the 
number were scattered throughout twenty-one other states of the Union. In 1880, thirty- 
nine members were residents of Worcester; forty-four from Massachusetts, outside of 
Worcester; sixty-two from other states of the Union; and seventeen from foreign countries. 
At present the membership in America of this (the American Antiquarian Society) is lim- 
ited to one hundred and forty. In 1893 there were twenty-six from Worcester; forty-three 
from Massachusetts, at large; sixty-two from other states in the Union, and thirty-two 
from foreign countries; total membership, one hundred and sixty-three. 

Since its organization it has been co nucting a noble and most important work. It 
came into thefield so soon after the birth of our national government that special and 
most favorable opportunities have been found for the accumulation of books, pamphlets, 
papers and manuscripts treating of historical events, not alone of America, but of various 
other nations — a service to which it was earh- commissioned. Its sphere of labor was, 
and is, world-wide, special attention being given to the subject of Archaeology, including 
a study of the antiquities of this American continent, and every measure was to be adopted 
that should "make the Society appear respectable as a National Institution," and the 
American Antiquarian Societ}' has not fallen short of accomplishing its mission, and is 
recognized as one of the leading Societies of its class in the world. Its voluminous 
library contains a collection of Americana of rare value, while its stock of original manu- 
scripts may be counted of much more than ordinary interest. But as the population of 
Worcester increased, and the good influence of this parent society was felt among the 
citizens, there sprang up a desire for another oi-ganization, that should give opportunity 
for other citizens of Worcester and vicinity to engage in historical study and research, and 
also to provide a suitable place for preserving and placing on exhibition relics of the past, 
especially those bearing upon the history of the City and County of Worcester, including 
their people and institutions, preserving, for he benefit of future generations, such books, 
pamphlets and documents of every descripfon as would furnish account of and portray 
the habits, life and character of the people that came to reclaim this wilderness and plant 
the institutions from whence so many benefits are at present derived, and to foster and 
encourage an interest in the history of this special locality. 

A number of conferences were held in the printing office of Messrs. Tyler and 
Seagrave, then on Main street, opposite the City Hall. At these preliminary meetings 
there were present Samuel E. Staples, Franklin P. Rice, John G. Smith, Daniel Seagrave 
and Albert Tyler. As a result of these deliberations, notices were issued for a meeting to 
be held at the home of Samuel E. Staples, Number 1, Lincoln Place, January 24, 1875. 
Besides Mr. Staples, there were present at this meeting John G. Smith, Franklin P. Rice, 
and Richard O'Flynn. It was here decided to proceed with the formation of a society, 
and arrangements were made for drafting a constitution, which was submitted at a meeting 
held January 30th, and, after slight changes, was adopted at the third meeting, held Febru- 
ary 13th. The first regular meeting held under the constitution came on March 2, 1875, at 
which time the organization was completed by the election of the following named officers: 
Samuel E. Staples, president; Henry D. Barber, vice-president; Daniel Seagrave, secre- 
taty; Henry F. Stedman, treasurer, and John G. Smith, librarian. For more than two 



WOKCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY xiii 

years meetings were held at the homes of the members, where occasionally a paper was 
read on some historical subject. But usually the time was passed in sociability and exam- 
ining the collection of books and relics in the possession of the member with whom the 
meeting was called. 

The infant society soon came into favor and was received by the citizens of Wor- 
cester with open arms, and grew with such rapidity that it became necessary to clothe it 
with a charter, that was secured in the month of March, 1877, Honorable Clark Jillson 
having been chosen by a vote of the Society, at its annual meeting, held January 2d of that 
year, to secure such an act. The names of the charter members were Samuel E. Staples, 
Clark Jillson, EUery B. Crane, Daniel Seagrave, Franklin P. Rice, James A. Smith, Albert 
A. Lovell and Albert Tyler. 

The organization of the corporation took place at the meeting held on March 6, 
1877, at the home of Edward I. Cornius, on Wellington street, Worcester, at which time 
the following officers were elected: President, Samuel E. Staples; vice-presidents, Clark 
Jillson and EUery B. Crane; treasurer, James A. Smith; clerk, Daniel Seagrave. These 
officers constituted the executive committee and Albert A. Lovell, Franklin P. Rice with 
Charles R. Johnson, were chosen to serve as the committee on nominations. Thus was 
the organization set in motion and started on its errand of usefulness. Good moral char- 
acter and an interest in the pursuit of historical studies, with the agreement to contribute 
five dollars each year, and also pay such other assessments, not exceeding one dollar, levied 
at any one time, as the society might elect, was the early test of qualification requisite for 
membership. At the annual meeting January 4, 1876, twelve names constituted the mem- 
bership roll. The next year saw the number increased to thirty names, and at the meet- 
ing held January 2, 1877, the librarian reported four bound volumes and four pamphlets 
as the extent of the Society's library. 

The first book given the Society was entitled "Worcester in the Revolution," pre- 
sented by the author, Albert A. Lovell, at a meeting held September 12, 1876, at the home 
of Ellery B. Crane. There was no special effort put forth for rapidly increasing the mem- 
bership. Some care was, however, given to securing workers in the cause that would enable 
the organization to make a showing sufficient to attract the attention of other persons of 
similar desires, and, if possible, secure their co-operation, and it is the belief that in this 
direction the efforts advanced were not futile. 

In the year 1878 the Society counted sixty-nine names upon its roll, fifty-two of 
them classed as active, two as life members and fifteen as honorary members. Among the 
latter class were men occupying exalted places as literary men and writers of history, all 
of whom, we regret to note, have now passed away, and gone to their eternal reward. At 
this writing not one of these fifteen gentlemen is left. 

The monthly reports made by members of their additions to their private collections 
stimulated the work of collecting, and helped to create interest in all matters of a historical 
nature, with the result that, when the time came for forming the Society's Collection, there 
was a generous response from those private sources, making it possible to create a com- 
mendable showing within a comparatively brief period of time. That the handful of books 
and pamphlets which by gift had become the property of the Society rhight receive proper 
care, and the secretary have a place for his books and papers, some kind of a repository 
was needed for their safe keeping, and the secretary purchased for one dollar and a half 
the Society's first book case. For want of a better place it was temporarily set up in the 
printing office of Messrs. Tyler and Seagrave. 



xiv WORCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY 

But the institution was growing, and June 19, 1877, steps were taken toward secur- 
ing a room in which to hold business meetings and deposit the Society's treasures, and on 
the fourth of September a vote was passed instructing the Treasurer to hire a room in the 
Bank Block, Foster street, and the first meeting of the Society was held there in room 
Number Six, up one flight of stairs, on Tuesday evening, October 2, 1877, twenty-one 
members being present. This was a notable meeting in the life of the young organization. 
More than two hundred and forty gifts of books and pamphlets with a few pictures were 
presented that evening, many of them being of special value. Honorable Clark Jillson's 
contribution included a large folio volume of Cicero's Orations, printed in the year 1472, a 
fine specimen of early printing. Four honorary members and three active members were 
voted in at that meeting, and Elihu Burritt, "the learned blacksmith," was proposed for 
honorary membership, and notice of the death of Harvey Dwight Jillson, M. D., of Fitch- 
burg, was given, it being the first death within the Society. 

For more than thirteen years the designation painted on the door of room Number 
Six announced to the visitor or the passer-by that it was the home of the Worcester Society of 
Antiquity, and manj' pleasant hours were passed within those walls by the little band of 
faithful and constant workers who, by common consent, met there not only on the first 
Tuesday evening in each month, but on ever}' Tuesday evening, unless absent from the 
city or detained by sickness, for all Tuesday evenings were consecrated to the interest 
of this Society. Not all who met there then are now within the sound of the human voice. 
But their influence and their works abide, and the memories of those pleasant, fascinating, 
edifying social gatherings linger in the minds of those living today, who can, perhaps, more 
full}- appreciate the value of those social conclaves in bringing together and centralizing 
the forces out of which this Society has been evolved, and also the words uttered by a mem- 
ber of that circle who has gone hence, one who in those days was a tower of strength, a 
giant among the weaklings, and possibly did more at the critical moment to put this 
Society in a condition to stand alone, than any other man. These are his prophetic words: 
"Our mission is not one that changes with the seasons. When we become weary with the 
labor it imposes and seek other employments, the places we leave will be filled by zealous 
laborers from a new generation, but the corner stone laid bj' our hands will continue to 
support the superstructure, though the sound of the builders' hammer may ring through its 
arches for centuries to come." 

Before the close of the year 1877, members of the Society were greatly encouraged 
in their work, as well as in the future prospects of the organization, by the kindly, stimu- 
lating words received from certain gentlemen prominent in historical and literary circles, 
in reply to notices sent them bj' the secretary, informing them of their having been elected 
to honorary membership in the young Society. Among those who responded with special 
reference to what had been accomplished, and the future outlook, were Benjamin J.. Toss- 
ing, Rev. Adin Ballou, Rev. Abijah Marvin, John G. Metcalf, M. D., Holmes Ammidown, 
Elihu Burritt, William S. Barton, Esq., Dr. Guilermo Rawson, and Rev. Carlton A. 
Staples. Of these, at this writing, not one remains. 

During the life of the Society, there has been no step taken that apparently pro- 
duced more beneficial results, and brought the Society into more popular favor, than print- 
ing and disseminating its transactions and literature. Thus was attention called to the 
valuable work being performed, and the publications of the Society soon found a demand 
which to this moment has continued to increase. Among the early tasks assumed was copy- 
ing and printing the inscriptions upon the tombstones in the ancient cemetery in Worces- 



WORCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY xv 

ter, known as the Mechanic Street Burial Ground. And, before the summer of 1877 
was ended, much had been done in securing inscriptions from burial grounds in Lancaster, 
Lunenburg, Mendon, Shrewsbury- and three of the ancient cemeteries in Worcester, while 
some progress had been made in copying those from the burial grounds in Brookfield, 
Leicester, Rutland, Southbridge and Sturbridge. This initial effort awakened fresh inter- 
est throughout the community in the preservation of both public and private records, and, 
through persistent exertions of members of this S ociety, and the co-operation of friends, 
the earh- records of Worcester were published, from the earliest date down to the adoption 
of the city charter in 1848, including the vital records, all of which have been assembled 
within the covers of the Society's publications, and constitute apart of the historical work 
accomplished through its members. 

At the close of the year, 1879, the librarian, Albert Lovell, reported that the Socie- 
ty's library contained thirteen hundred and twenty-five bound volumes and four thousand 
three hundred and fortj'-two pamphlets and in the spring of 1881 it became necessary to 
add another room to Number Six, the latter being used for meetings, while the second room 
was for the accommodation of the rapidly increasing library and a small collection of rel- 
ics. It was thought, with this addition, ample room had been provided for some time to 
come. But in June, 1885, came a substantial increase to the library, of a gift from Mrs. 
Charlotte Downes, of a collection of books and pamphlets, once the property of her late 
husband, John Downes, Esq., of Washington, D. C. It was g pleasant surprise, and 
caused no slight enthusiasm throughout the membership of the Society, for they fully ap- 
preciated the value of the gift. 

On the thirty-first day of March, 1883, occurred the death of Rev. George Allen. He 
had been a frequent visitor at the meetings, and much interested in the work of the 
Society. During his lifetime he had accumulated a large library. A short time before his 
death, a considerable portion, however, had been sold at public auction in Boston, but 
there still remained at the time of his decease about three thousand volumes, and, through 
contributions of money from members and their friends, this collection of books and 
pamphlets was added to the Society's library. 

The next red-letter day was the observance of the tenth anniversary of the organ- 
ization. The exercises were held in the Old South meeting-house, then standing on the 
common on the site of the present City Hall. It was held on the twenty-seventh day of 
January, 1885. Rev. Carlton A. Staples delivered the principal address. The proper date 
came the twenty-fourth, but as that fell on Saturday, it was decided to celebrate on the 
following Tuesday. There was a large attendance at the meeting in the church, after 
which there was a banquet served at the Bay State House. Alfred S. Roe was toastmaster, 
and it was after midnight when the end came to the good things that were said there. Not 
long after this event, Honorable Stephen Salisbury, one of Worcester's prominent philan- 
thropists, who had been watching the growth and conduct of this institution, offered to 
assist in providing a home for it by contributing a lot of land on which to erect a building, 
and also to give a certain sum of money toward a building fund. His offer was accepted 
with most grateful acknowledgments, committees were chosen for carrying the work for- 
ward, and in due time the Society came into possession of a substantial, commodious, 
brick building, well adapted to the needs of the Society, and through the exertion of its 
members and their friends, chief among them the late Stephen Salisbury, it is the posses- 
sor of a property valued at fifty thousand dollars, not including its valuable library of 
twenty thousand bound volumes, thirty-live thousand pamphlets, and an interesting mus- 



vi WORCESTER SOCIETY OF ANTIQUITY 

eum containing over six thousand relics of Indian, Colonial, Revolutionary, Civil and 
Domestic life, many articles of which it would be exceedingly difficult to duplicate, all 
debts paid, and eleven thousand dollars of invested funds. Truly a remarkable showing. 

The home of this Worcester Society of A?itiguity is located at Number Thirty-nine 
Salisbury street, Worcester, Massachusetts, and was dedicated on the afternoon of 
November 24, 1891. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



HON. GEORGE FRISBIE HOAR. No more 
popular and truly meritorious family name comes 
to the mind in writing of the many celebrated family 
circles of Worcester county than that to which the 
late lamented United States senator, George F. Hoar, 
belonged. Others have attained to high emmence 
in local, state and national fame, but to recite the 
history of their accomplishments is an easier task 
than to pick from a vast collection of important 
data the facts from which a sketch suitable m 
length for a work of this character can be compiled 
and do justice to the memory of him for whom it is 
written. Senator Hoar was born at Concord, Massa- 
chusetts, August 29, 1826, and passed from earthly 
scenes September 30, 1904— seventy-eight eventful, 
well spent vears. 

His ancestors from the early day "Massachusetts 
Bay Colony," were men of great courage and activity. 
One writer says "They were in advance of the times 
in which they lived and were leaders to a higher 
and better sphere, both in social and political sense." 
The earliest of his male ancestors in this country 
was John Hoar, one of three brothers who came 
with their sister and mother from Gloucester, Eng- 
land. The husband and father, Charles Hoar, was 
sheriff of Gloucester and died before his family came 
to America. His wife, Joanna, died at Braintree, 
1661. They had three sons and two daughters. 
The sons were Daniel, who returned to Eng- 
land in 1653; Leonard, who graduated at Har- 
vard College, 1650, and was president of that insti- 
tution from 1672 to 1675, when he died, and John. 
(See Hudson's "History of Lexington," page 104, 
Genealogical Register.) 

(H) John Hoar, son of the first family who 
located in New England by this name, was a lawyer, 
distinguished for bold, manly independence. He 
resided in Scituate, Massachusetts, from 1643 to 
1655. It was about 1660 when he settled in Con- 
cord and died April 2, 1704. His wife Alice died 
June S, 1697. Their children included Elizabeth, who 
in December, 1675, married Jonathan Prescott; Mary, 
married Benjamin Graves, October 21, 1668; and 
Daniel, who married (first) Mary Stratton, (sec- 
ond) Mary Lee. The Hoar family were among the 
early bay colonists and some true conception of their 
character may be had by referring to a matter of 
New England history, wherein it is recorded that 
after the Indian massacre at Lancaster at the time of 
King Philip's war, John Hoar, at the request of the 
colonial authorities, followed the Indian _ band far 
into the wilderness, and after great hardship and the 
exercise of great ingenuity, recovered by ransom 
Mrs. Rowlandson, a lady captive from Lancaster. 
Her account of her xansom is published. The rock 

where she was redeemed is situated in , 

close by the base of Wachusett Mountain, and has 



been marked by the senator with a suitable inscrip- 
tion. 

(HI) Daniel Hoar, son of John, born about 
1655, married, July 19, 1677, Mary Stratton, and 
October 16, 17 17, Mary Lee. By these marriages the 
following children were born : John, October 24, 
167S; Leonard, a captain, died April, 1771, aged 
eighty-seven years, in Brainfield, where a part of the 
descendants now reside — some having taken the name 
of Homer; Daniel, 1680, married Sarah Jones; 
Jonathan, died at the Castle, October 26, 1702; 
Joseph died at sea, 1707; Benjamin; Mary, March 
14, 1689, died June 10, 1702 ; Samuel, April 6, 
1691 ; David, November 14, i6g8; Isaac, May 18, 
1695: Elizabeth, February 22, 1701. 

(IV) Daniel Hoar, son of Daniel (3) and great- 
grandson of the ancestor, born 1680, married Sarah 
Jones, daughter of John and Sarah Jones, December 
20, 1705, lived in southeastern part of Concord, 
where he died February 8, 1773, aged ninety-three 
years. Their children were: John, born January 
6, 1707; he was twice married. Jonathan, born 
January 6, 1707 (twin brother of John), graduated 
at Harvard College, 1740; was an officer in the 
provincial service during the war of 1744 to 1763. 
In I7SS lie went as a major to Fort Edward ; the 
next year was a lieutenant-colonel in Nova Scotia, 
and an aide to Major-General Winslow at Crown 
Point. After the peace of 1763 he went to England 
and was appointed governor of Newfoundland and 
neighboring provinces, but unfortunately died on his 
passage thither, aged fifty-two years. Daniel, en- 
tered Harvard College, 1730, but did not graduate; 
he married Rebecca Brooks, November 2, 1743, and 
removed to Westminster, where he died, leaving two 
sons and two daughters. Lucy, married John 
Brooks. Elizabeth, married a Mr. Whittemore of 
West Cambridge. Mary, married Zachariah Whitte- 
more. 

(V) John Hoar, born January 6, 1707, married 
in Lexington, June 13, 1734, Esther Pierce, by 
whom he had two children. She died and he married, 
August 21, 1740, in Watertown, Elizabeth Cooledge. 
He died in Lincoln, Massachusetts, May 16, 1786, 
and his widow died March 20, 1791. He lived suc- 
cessively in Lexington, Watertown and again in 
Lexington and Lincoln. It is not quite clear when 
he first came to Lexington, He was taxed for a' per- 
sonal and realty in 1729, ^nd had a seat assigned him 
in the meeting house in 1731, when they reseated 
the house. He was a member of the school committee 
in 1743. He subsequently filled the offices of con- 
stable, assessor and selectman. His home was in that 
part of Lexington set off to Lincoln in 1754. His 
children were : Rebecca, born in Lexington, July I, 
173s, married. May 6, 1755, Joseph Cutler; Esther, 
born in Watertown, January 28, 1739, married Ed- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



mond Bowman, 1760; John, born in Lexington, July 
14, 1741, died young; Samuel, born at Lexington, 
August 23, 1743 ; Elizabeth, born in Lexington, 
October 14, 1746; Mary, born in Lexington, October 
5, 1750, died young; Sarah, born in Lincoln, June 
9, 1755 married Nehemiah Abbot ; Leonard, born 
in . Lincoln, June 29, 1758, was twice married ; Re- 
becca, born in Lincoln, October 18, 1761, married 
Joseph White, Lancaster; Wary, born June 17, 1764, 
married Thomas Wheeler, March 27, 1788; Joseph, 
born July 30, 1767. 

(VI) Samuel Hoar, son of John (s), born 'in 
Lexington, Massachusetts, August 23, 1743, was an 
important man in Lincoln ; he frequently represented 
his town in the house of representatives, and was 
a state senator from Middlesex coimty, iNIassachu- 
setts, from 1813 to 1816. He married Susanna 
Pierce, by whom he had ten children — five of each 
sex. 

(Vn) Samuel Hoar, eldest son of Samuel (6), 
born May 18, 1778, graduated at Harvard College, 
1802, received the degree of LL. D., 1838. He taught 
school in Virginia two years, and was admitted to 
the Massachusetts bar in 1805. He was an eminent 
lawyer, contemporary with Choate, Mason and 
Daniel Webster. He frequently represented the town 
of Lincoln in the Massachusetts legislature, was a 
senator from the county of Middlesex from 1813 to 
1816, and was elected to congress for the years 
1835-37-44. The legislature of Massachusetts sent 
him to South Carolina to test the constitutionality 
of certain acts authorizing the imprisonment of free 
colored persons held as prisoners in that state. By 
order of the governor of South Carolina, he was 
forcibly ejected from the state and compelled to 
leave before fulfilling his mission, but acquitted him- 
self manfully throughout the entire case. He was a 
man of marked character and standing. He died 
at Concord, Massachusetts, November 2, 1856. He 
married Sarah, youngest daughter of Roger Sher- 
man, of Connecticut, who was one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence ; one of the framers 
of the United States Constitution; judge, and later 
United States senator, and mayor of New Haven 
until his death. The children of Samuel and Sarah 
.(Sherman) Hoar were: Elizabeth, born July 14, 
i8l4i Ebenezer Rockwood, February 21, 1816; Sarah  
Sherman, November 9, 1817; Samuel Johnson, Feb- 
.Tuaxy 4, 1820, died 1821 ; Edward Sherman, Decem- 
ber 22, 1823, graduate of Harvard College, 1844; 
George Frisbie, August 29, 1826. 

(VIII) Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, eldest son of 
Samuel and Sarah (Sherman) Hoar, born February 
21, 1816, graduated at Harvard College, 183S, and in 
1839 began the practice of law in Concord, Massachu- 
setts, and aside from representing his native county in 
the state senate was, in 1S49. made judge of the court 
of common pleas. In 1859 he was appointed a justice 
of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and in Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant's administration was appointed 
attorney general of the United States in March, 
1869. In 1871 he was high commissioner of the 
Washington treaty, and a member of congress from 
Massachusetts from 1873 to 1875. 

(VIII) George Frisbie Hoar, son of Samuel and 
Sarah (Sherman) Hoar, born in Concord, Massa- 
chusetts, August 29, 1826. The scenes of his boy- 
hood were cast in pleasant places, midst fine influ- 
ences, all calculated to unfold the germ of the true 
life to be enacted. After his common school days at 
Concord he entered Harvard College, graduating 
in 1846. He chose the honorable profession of law 
for his calling in life, "fitting himself in Harvard 
Law School and in the law office of Judge Thomas 
in Worcester. He was admitted to the bar in 1849 
and at once began the practice of his profession in 



Worcester, which city has ever since claimed him 
as one of her most honored citizens. Among his 
legal associates were Hon. Emery Washburn and 
later with Hon. Charles Devens and J. Henry Hill, 
Esq. Mr. Hoar rapidly rose to a very eminent rank 
in his profession. The native genius of his mind, 
well disciplined by a thorough educational training, 
and augmented by an uncommon energy, he steadily 
moved forward and became a recognized leader. In 
i86g, when he entered congress, after twenty years 
at the bar, his legal practice was the largest of any 
west of Middlesex county and the most valuable in 
a financial point of view. 

It was in 1849 when George F. Hoar first en- 
tered the political arena as the chairman of the Free- 
Soil party for Worcester county, where the party 
was the best organized of any county in the United 
States. When he was twenty-five years of age, in 
1851, he was elected as a representative to the gen- 
eral court of Massachusetts. He was the youngest 
member in that body, but became the leader of the 
constitution in law matters and to him was given 
the task of drawing resolutions protesting against 
the compromise measures of the National govern- 
ment in 1850. He had so far advanced in political 
life that he could have succeeded Hon. Charles 
Allen in congress, but he would not listen to the call 
made by his friends to enter congress as it would 
be to put politics ahead of law — his chosen pro- 
fession. Had he at that time entered the con- 
gressional field, he would no doubt have been among 
the foremost in civil war and reconstruction periods. 
He would not go to congress, but did not refuse to 
serve in the state legislature, which was pressed 
upon him, In 1857 he was a member of the senate 
and chairman of the judiciary committee. In that 
body he made a masterly report. He was always 
ready to make campaign speeches, and but few ad- 
vanced more thorough, extended and logical ar- 
guments. 

In 1868 Mr. Floar was elected a representative 
in congress (Republican) as the successor of the 
late Hon. John D. Baldwin. In this, the forty-first 
congress, he was a member of the committee on 
education and labor and his chief work was the 
preparation and advocacy of the bill for national 
education. The bill did not pass in that session, 
and Mr. Hoar reported it in the next, and finally in 
the forty-third congress it passed by the house but 
failed in the senate. In the same congress he 
vindicated General Howard and supported Sumner 
in his opposition to General Evarts' scheme of an- 
nexation of Santo Domingo. As a member of the 
election committee in the forty-second congress, he 
drew the bill and had much to do along this line. 
In the following congress he made his famous 
eulogy on Senator Sumner. He was instrumental 
in passing the Ead's jetty bill, and thus was opened 
up the New Orleans ocean commerce line. But 
perhaps of more importance than all was his con- 
nection with the electorial commission bill, he be- 
ing associated with General Earheld. Judge Abbott, 
of Massachusetts, and Payne, of Ohio. In 1872 
and again in 1874 Mr. Hoar had made known his 
desire to jretire to private life, but each time felt 
his duty was in serving, because his state de- 
manded it. 

In 1876 his resolve to not be a candidate again 
for re-election was announced as final, and the 
people elected his successor ; but the ne.xt Massa- 
chusetts legislature chose JNIr. Hoar to succeed Mr. 
Boutwell as United States senator, and he took his 
seat March 4, 1877, at the beginning of President 
Hayes' administration.' Here he rapidly rose in the 
scale and dignity of a true Arnerican diplomat and 
statesman. He became chairman of many important 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



committees, including that of privileges and claims 
and on judiciary. He was author of the bill for 
distributing the balance of the Geneva Award; the 
Lawell bankruptcy bill; the presidential succession 
bill, tenure of otiice act, bureau of labor statistics 
and many others. The most of his time in the 
house and United States senate was spent in work- 
ing for bills, laws and measures of large scope and 
wide range, leaving others less competent than him- 
self to discharge their duties in maLt-^rs of not so 
much real importance to the great and growing 
nation. 

In 1883 and 1SS9, he was re-elected to his seat 
in the senate. To have been elected by the legislature 
so many times by a unanimous vote of its members 
was a new record for JNlassachusetts, and only be- 
spoke of merit for him of whom this brief memoir is 
compiled, giving him a rank along with Charles 
Sumner and Daniel Webster, who were in the same 
office, and as a cotemporary with Samuel Hoar, his 
father. His voice has been heard in the national 
halls of legislation for thirty-live years, and he 
served as United States senator twenty-seven years 
of this period, his service being as long if not longer 
than any American of our time. 

Mr. Hoar has four times served as the chairman 
of the JNlassachusetts Republican State Convention. 
In 1880 he was president of the National Convention 
at Chicago, by which General Garfield was made 
presidential nominee. In his deliberations upon 
that occasion he proved his masterly fitness as a 
leader of great bodies of great men in e.xciting, 
eventful history-making times. In 1898 President 
McKinley tendered him the ambassadorship to Lon- 
don, but on account of his extreme age and desiring 
to further serve in the senate, he respectfully de- 
clined. He enjoyed travel, especially in Europe. 
From his first visit to England in i860, he has made 
trips as follows: 1860-68-71-92-96-99. He was a 
member of the Worcester Fire Society for fifty 
years. This society was formed in 1793, and was 
limited to a membership of thirty persons ; it has 
come to be a social and historical body of much 
interest. 

In 1903 Senator Hoar wrote and had published 
what is known by its title, "Autobiography of Sev- 
enty Years." It is a neat and well written detailed 
account of his own life. It embraces two volumes, 
and is dedicated to his wife and children — "a record 
of a life which they made happy," he says in its 
dedication. One paragraph in his introduction of 
this work reads : "The lesson I have learned in 
life, which is impressed more deeply as I grow old, 
is the lesson of Good Will and Good Hope. I be- 
lieve that to-day is better than yesterday and that 
tomorrow will be better than to-day. I believe that 
in spite of so many errors and wrongs and even 
crimes, my countrymen of all classes desire what 
is good and not what is evil." 

While much of his time for more than one-third 
of a century has been in Washington, yet has Wor- 
cester felt the touch of his influence and life. He 
was the prime mover in establishing a free public 
library in this city. He materially aided in placing 
the Polytechnic Institute on solid foundation. He 
was a great friend and help to Clark University. 
He was trustee of the Leicester Academy and first 
president of St. Wulstan Society, at Worcester. He 
also was instrumental in founding the Worcester 
Art Society and Worcester Club. He was an hon- 
orary member of the Worcester Mechanics' Asso- 
ciation. He was the oldest member at the time of 
his decease of any save two of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, and was an honorary member of 
the Worcester Society of Antiquity, as well as 
active in the Massachusetts Historical Society. He 



was chairman of the public preservation committee 
of Massachusetts, and helped to mark permanently 
the old revolutionary landmarks by proper stones, 
tablets, etc. He bought the old house in which 
had lived General Rufus Putnam, at Rutland, and 
made it a permanently preserved historic relic of 
revolutionary times. 

That the effect of his noble impulses and the 
care and consideration he always gave to the help- 
less and oppressed be not lost sight of, it should here 
be given as an illustration of this marked trait of 
his character, what relates to the early abolition 
days, when he, a young lawyer practicing in Wor- 
cester, helped to defend a person from mob violence. 
It was the case wherein a slave "kidnapper" during 
the "fifties" was arrested and tried in Worcester, 
but finally allowed to depart, with the promise of 
never returning. j\Iany colored people here and 
many more radical abolitionists felt justice had not 
been meted out to him, and had it not been for 
young George F. Hoar and his associates he would 
have been violently mobbed. While Mr. Hoar was 
a lije long friend and helper of the colored race, 
he did not believe in the theory of mob law. He 
ever took deep interest in the freedmen of the south 
and gave liberally toward their educational insti- 
tutions, believing, as he did, that education would 
sooner or later solve the race problem. 

One more recent act of his great kindness was 
seen in securing the discharge of two small Assyrian 
girls, who accompanied their mother to this country 
from Assyria in 1901 to be with the head of the 
family who had been here several years and de- 
clared his intention of becoming a citizen in Wor- 
cester. Before landing at Boston harbor the officers 
discovered that one of the little girls was afflicted 
with a disorder of the eye known as trachoma and 
considered incurable in adults and contagious. They 
under the law, were ordered not to land 011 our 
shores and to return at once to their native coun- 
try. The family was poor, the father a hard work- 
ing citizen of Worcester, and the mother was to be 
thus ruthlessly torn from the two idols of her heart. 
The various officials tried in vain to evade the ex- 
isting law, but were thwarted. The steamer which 
was to take the little girls back was to sail the 
next day, but through the interposition of Senator 
Hoar, whose son Rockwood made the facts known 
to him, finally through a touching telegram to 
President Roosevelt, secured a peremptory order of 
release of the children, and they were brought to 
Worcester, cared for and soon cured. When the 
kindhearted president visited Worcester, a few 
months later, he wished to see them and they met 
him at Senator Hoar's residence, where all parties 
were pathetically touched by the scene. It is small 
deeds that introduce to us great characters and 
tender hearts, such as was that of both Senator 
Hoar and President Roosevelt. Soon thereafter 
Senator Hoar had the law so amended that such a 
proposed hardship could not again exist in this 
country through "red tape." 

While he of whom we write had his political 
enemies — and within his own party — perhaps no 
other man has been in public life so many years and 
made so few enemies, and even those who opposed 
his position were at all times personally his friends. 
In the part he took in opposing the action of the 
present Republican administration policy regarding 
the Philippine Island questions — one where he crossed 
swords politically with many of our brainiest 
statesmen — all, even President McKinley himself, 
knew of and respected his manly independent stand 
as against popular opinion. McKinley was of a 
different opinion regarding a vexed question, but 
personally was one of Senator Hoar's warmest 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



friends. In ilr. Hoar's Autobiography, he says : 
"It has been my ill fortune to differ with my party 
many times." One such occasion was when he 
bluntly said to jMcKinley, "you cannot maintain a 
Despotism in Asia and a Republic in America." 
The man with no opposers has accomplished little 
and has made but few friends, but he who in the 
pride and spirit of his manhood advocates the right, 
as he sees the right, and not from policy, is sure 
to accomplish what is demanded of a well rounded 
character, whether in politics, social or private life. 
Senator Hoar was broad-minded, scholarly and 
patriotic in all he said and sought to accomplish. 
Of his domestic relations it may be stated that 
in 1853 he married Mary Louisa Spurr, daughter 
of Samuel D. Spurr, who conducted a dry goods 
house in Worcester, kept in a large two-story brick 
block on the north corner of Main and Central 
streets. Near it stood a large two-story frame 
house, which was the residence of Mr. Spurr. Mrs. 
Hoar at her death left two children, a daughter 
Mary, and a son Rockwood, who graduated from 
Harvard College in 1876, and was elected district 
attorney for Worcester county in 1899, serving until 
January i, 1905. In the autumn of 1904 he was 
elected to a scat in congress as the nominee of the 
Republican party for his district. For his second 
wife Senator Hoar married Ruth Ann, daughter of 
the late Henry W. Miller, of Worcester. She died 
about a year in advance of her husband. Finally 
the end came and he who had been styled "the 
grand old man" was claimed by the death mes- 
senger and the spirit took its flight at his home in 
Worcester, September 30, 1904. He was a firm 
believer in the Unitarian faith, and was identi- 
fied with that church many years. His funeral was 
attended by one of the largest concourse of people 
ever seen in the commonwealth on such a sad oc- 
casion. His remains now repose in Sleepy Hollow 
cemetery, at the place of his birth. 

ROCKWOOD HOAR, late congressman from 
the third congressional district, was the only son 
of the late Senator George F. Hoar. While the best 
wishes of the friends of the honored sire always fol- 
lowed the son, while the ability and character of the 
father seemed to be in large measure inherited by the 
son, Mr. Hoar won his own spurs. He gained his 
election because he had evinced the capacity essential 
to represent this district in congress, because he was 
one of the most accomplished lawyers in his native 
city, because his record as district attorney deserved 
endorsement and commendation. He demonstrated 
an unprecedented popularity when a candidate for 
oifice. His vote for district attorney showed increas- 
ing strength at the polls every time he ran. His 
friends took an unqualified pride in his career. 

Rockwood Hoar was born in Worcester, August 
24, 185s, and always lived there. He fitted for col- 
lege in the Worcester public schools. He graduated 
at Harvard College in the class of 1876 and entered 
the law school. He received the degree of LL. B. 
in 1878 and A. M. in 1879. He was admitted to the 
bar in 1879 and immediately began to practice in 
the law office of his father, which was then shared 
by Colonel A. George Bullock, president of the State 
Mutual Life Insurance Company, at present, and the 
Hon. Thomas L. Nelson, late justice of the United 
States district court. In 1884 he was appointed 
assistant district attorney for the middle district of 
Massachusetts, a district which includes the city 
and county of Worcester. He was assistant while 
Colonel W. S. B. Hopkins was district attorney until 
1888. In 1809 he was elected district attorney of 
the middle district and served until January, 1905. 
He was thus closely identified with the administra- 



tion of justice in this county for twenty years. He 
had an excellent general practice, but his reputation 
as a lawyer and public official depended chiefly on 
his record in the district attorney's office as assistant 
and as chief. It would be difficult to find anywhere 
a man who had shown more sympathy for the un- 
fortunate, combined with absolute faithfulness to 
his duty as prosecuting officer. No district at- 
torney of Worcester county showed more discriminat- 
ing judgment in performing his office. His ideal 
seemed to be, not the one of securing convictions at 
any cost, but to see justice done and the spirit of the 
law executed in good faith. 

The detective officers of the district have a high 
reputation for intelligence and thoroughness in .the 
performance of their duties. By a careful and sys- 
tematic preparation and supervision of important 
criminal cases, Mr. Hoar was able to thoroughly 
master the questions at issue and to ascertain in 
advance what disposition should be made of them. 
He rarely lost cases in which he went to trial. The 
counsel for defendants soon learned that his recom- 
mendations to the court were carefully considered 
by the presiding judge and that they could obtain 
the best results for their clients by submitting to 
his careful and sympathetic judgment and to his 
recognition and frank endorsement of all that could 
fairly be said in favor of the defendant. The first 
trial in Massachusetts upon an indictment for mur- 
der in the second degree was conducted by him and 
the indictment sustained by the supreme judicial 
court. The murder trials conducted by him were 
held without the expensive relays of stenographers, 
which had so largely increased the expense of these 
trials in earlier days. His cases were promptly 
and vigorously presented. 

Shortly after he was elected district attorney he 
became convinced that the probation system was in 
line with modern methods and a means of making 
the law more efficient. In igoo he secured the ap- 
pointment of Colonel James M. Drennan as proba- 
tion officer for the superior court. Under this 
system about one hundred cases annually are taken 
on probation by Colonel Drennan. That means 
about a third of the cases presented to the court 
that would eventually come to trial. This policy 
gives the first off'ender a chance to reform and avoid 
a criminal career. The harsh and indiscriminate 
treatment of criminals has been found to defeat the 
very purpose of criminal law, and manufacture and 
harden criminals rather thaji to teach them a lesson. 
First offenders in all the more serious crimes, as 
for instances boys who have committed theft, burg- 
lary or embezzlement, have been put in the care of 
the probation officer. Of the four hundred and 
twenty-five cases put on probation during Mr. Hoar's 
term as district attorney, only a very few have 
proved to be second offenders. The probation system 
is not only humane and reasonable, but it is a Chris- 
tian and philosophical way to teach men who have 
erred to keep straight, to demonstrate that the law 
of our times is not provided as an instrument of 
vengeance, but merely to protect society and to 
correct the criminal himself. What The Worcester 
S/^y said of Mr. Hoar when he was elected dis- 
trict attorney is very fitting at the close of his service 
as he enters upon a new career in the public service : 
"In all his official acts, Mr. Hoar has been scrupu- 
lously painstaking, no matter what degree of im- 
portance was attached to them and his tenure of the 
office of assistant district attorney was characterized 
by a measure of success that augurs well for a satis- 
factory administration of the department w-ith him 
as chief." 

He held many other positions of honor and 
trust. He was a member of the common council in 




CmJ <T^S~cL.^>\ATzx^ri^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Worcester from 1S87 to 1891, inclusive, being presi- 
dent the last-named year. These were important 
years in the municipal history of Worcester, and 
Mt. Hoar was always useful and energetic. He was 
a private in the Massachusetts Concord Artillery 
Company, Company C, Fifth Regiment, Massachu- 
setts Volunteer Militia, from 1875 to 1S78. He was ap- 
pointed aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Oliver 
Ames and ser\-ed from 1887 to 1890 with the rank 
of colonel. He was appointed judge advocate gen- 
eral on the staff of Governor Roger Wolcott in 1897 
and served four years, acting as president of the 
military board of officers, having charge of the 
equipment of the INIassachusetts troops in the war 
of 1898 with Spain. He had the rank of brigadier- 
general. He was known by all the prominent men 
of the state, and well liked by his associates in 
office. He was a director of the Worcester Trust 
Company. He was formerly a director of the Wash- 
burn & i\Ioen Manufacturing Company before it 
was absorbed by the American Steel & Wire Co. 
He was a trustee of Clark University. He was 
for twenty years a trustee of the Worcester Insane 
Hospital, having in charge also the Worcester In- 
sane Asylum, both institutions being a part of the 
state system for the care and cure of the insane. 
He received his appointments from successive gov- 
ernors. He always took great personal interest in 
the development and conduct of these hospitals. 

He was a member of the Grafton Country Club, 
Tatnuck Country Club and the Worcester Club, but 
too busy to take advantage of his privileges often. 
His recreations were golfing, driving and hunt- 
ing. He was a lover of good horses. He 
took an occasional hunting trip in New Hamp- 
shire, but he followed in a general way the 
old fashioned devotion to his home and 
his office more closely than most of his professional 
brethren. He was a member of the parish committee 
of the Church of the Unity, of which his mother 
was a charter member, and which his father attended 
from the time of his coming to Worcester till his 
death. He was one of the most prominent laymen 
in the Unitarian church in the state, and an active 
and enthusiastic participant in all concerning the 
welfare of the Church of the Unit}-. Mr. Hoar 
occupied the modest house at Washington which his 
father purchased about a year before he died. 

He would have been an interesting figure among 
the new congressmen, partly because of the prom- 
inence of his father, partly because of his having 
redeemed the third congressional district by a sub- 
stantial majority. His was a district where a Democrat 
was elected to congress for three successive terms 
and in a year when a Democratic governor was 
elected in ^lassachusetts (1904), he was elected to 
congress, the vote of his district standing : Rock- 
wood Hoar, Republican, 17,796; John B. Ratigan, 
Democrat, 10,617; John W. Brown, Socialist, 733. 
Incidentally it may be noted that never before in 
the history of the government has a father in the 
senate been followed upon his death by a son in the 
house of representatives. His grandfather, Samuel 
Hoar, his uncle, Judge E. Rockwood Hoar, and 
Judge Hoar, son of Sherman Hoar, were prominent 
Massachusetts congressmen. 

He married, June i, 1893, Christine Rice, daugh- 
ter of William E. Rice, of Worcester, Massachusetts. 
(See Sketch of Rice Family and William E. Rice.) 
Mrs. Hoar is well fitted for her social duties at 
Washington by training and personal attractiveness. 
At the recent visit of President Roosevelt to Wor- 
cester he was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Hoar, at 
their charming home at 16 Hammond street. Their 
children are : Frances Helen, born November 24, 
1895; Louisa Ruth, born August 22, 1898. 



.\t the close of the last session of congress he came 
home greatly fatigued and almost immediately started 
on a European trip in search of rest, accompanied by 
members of his immediate family, and although the 
trip proved restful, the severe strain to which he 
had been subjected, had laid the foundations for a 
disease of the brain which finally terminated his 
life. Soon after reaching Worcester on his return 
from Europe, he placed himself under the care of 
his family physician, and all that was possible for 
human hands to do, was done to save his life, but 
he passed away on Thursday evening, November i, 
1906, at his home, No. 34 Oak avenue, Worcester, 
in the same house in which his father died. 

SALISBURY FAMILY. The earliest rec- 
ord of the Salisbury family goes back into the 
history of Great Britain, and it is very likely that 
the family had ancestors in Wales. From family 
records and those of Suffolk county, Massachusetts, 
it is clear that John Salisbury, who came to Boston 
between 1630 and 1640, was the founder of the 
family in America. But little can be learned of his 
history either on this side or beyond the seas. It 
is certain that he was a Boston taxpayer in Suffolk 
county, Massachusetts, in 1689; that he w'as among 
"The List of Inhabitants in Boston," 1695 ; and that 
he died in 1702. 

(.1) John Salisbury, earliest known at Boston, 

married first, Annabel , and (second; 

Bridget Williams, from whom were children, includ- 
ing Nicholas and James (twins), born August 20, 
1694; Nicholas was baptized in the Second Church 
of Boston, John was styled in the Suffolk county 
probate records as "late of Boston, a marriner," 
generally understood in tlTose early days to mean a 
sea captain. 

(II) Nicholas Salisburj', son of John and 
Bridget (Williams) Salisbury (i), born August 20, 
1694, was a mere boy at the time of his father's 
death. Little of positive record can be had of the 
career of Nicholas, who was described as a "Mer- 
chant" in the Boston records, but that he grew to 
manhood and married Martha Saunders, and to 
them were born Elizabeth, Sarah and Stephen. The 
date of the marriage of Nicholas and Martha was 
October l, 1724, and tradition says "he fell in love 
with her at first sight, at the Old South Church in 
Boston." Her father was Josiah Saunders, who in 
the records was described as "Marriner" (sea cap- 
tain). Martha's mother was Rebekah Eldridge, 
whose brother John left a legacy of eight thousand 
pounds sterling to "My Sister and all her daughters 
and their children in New England." In the will of 
Nicholas Salisbury, April 4, 1748, he is called "shop- 
keeper." He gave three hundred pounds sterling 
to his son Stephen, and the balance of his estate left 
at the time of his wife's decease. He also gave "JNIy be- 
loved brother Benjamin" one hundred pounds ster- 
ling or its equivalent. Viewed in the light of what 
was the true fact, and what transpired in later years 
in connection with the Salisburys' standing and 
worth as men of means and integrity of character, 
the following copied from the proceedings of the 
selectmen of Boston, at a meeting held July 9, 171 1, 
is amusing: "Ordered that Nicholas Salisbury, who 
belongs to Charlestown and came lately to our Town 
to dwell, be notified to appear before the Selectmen 
with security or depart out of our Town." In ex- 
planation of" this it should be stated that it was then 
the law and custom in New England to require se- 
curity of all newcomers, this being for a twofold 
purpose ; first, to insure the town against^ people 
who might be paupers or liable to be a -financial 
burden ; and second, to make sure of the religious and 
political loyalty of the newcomer before admitting 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



him as a citizen wlio should have their protection, 
and who should walk and live in harmony with 
them. 

(III) Stephen Salisbury came to Worcester in 
1767 to establish a branch house for Samuel and 
Stephen Salisbury, of Boston, his partner being an 
elder brother. He was born in Boston, September 
25, 1746, the son of Nicholas and Martha (Saun- 
ders) Salisbury. The above firm were importers of 
hardware and kindred goods from England and the 
West Indies. Worcester proved a favorable centre 
for a large country trade, then numbering about one 
thousand people. The Salisburys imported their 
own merchandise, and hence could afford to sell 
almost as cheaply in Worcester as in Boston. When 
Mr. Salisbury first moved to Worcester, political 
aiifairs were engaging the attention of the people, 
and the trouble with the mother country was be- 
coming more and more serious. Here controversies 
had become more acute than in most places, for here 
lived numbers of obstinate Tories, as well as many 
who were fearless defenders of the colonial rights. 
Mr. Salisbury early took his stand with the patriots. 
He accepted no office, but his name frequently ap- 
pears in town records as being on committees to 
prepare resolutions against some act of tyranny. He 
bought a large farm to the northward of the city, 
and his place of business was at Lincoln Square. To 
the east of the front door of his "mansion" was 
the counting-room and salesroom. Until well ad- 
vanced in life his mother presided over his house- 
hold. January 31, 1797, after his mother's death, he 
married Elizabeth Tuckerman, daughter of Edward 
and Elizabeth Tuckerman, of Boston. By this mar- 
riage one son was born— Stephen, March 8, 179S. A 
daughter, Elizabeth T., was born in 1800, died in 
1S03, and a son, Edward Tuckerman, born in 1803, 
died in i8og. Mr. Salisbury died May 11, 1829, 
eighty-four years of age. "His figure was slight and 
very graceful, and it is said that his face was very 
handsome, and he retained a complexion of youth- 
ful freshness until the end of his life." His pastor 
and friend. Rev. Dr. Aaron Bancroft, described him 
as a "just man." He was an original member of 
the famous Worcester Fire Society, organized Jan- 
uary 21, 1793, and continued an associate until July 
6, 1801. A part of the above facts have" been gleaned 
froni writings of his contemporaries, each and all 
plainly verifying all that is here claimed as to the 
sterling qualities jf his manly character. 

(IV) Stephen Salisbury was born at Lincoln 
Square, in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
March 8, 1798, at the old Salisbury mansion, erected 
by his father Stephen, who came from Boston to 
Worcester in 1767 and built the above residence in 
1770, in which he dwelt for the remainder of his 
days. Stephen Salisbury obtained his primary 
education at the Old Centre district school, 
prepared for college at the Leicester Acad- 
emy, and graduated with honors from Harvard LTni- 
versity in the class of 1817, celebrated for what its 
members accomplished after they went forth to 
the actual work of their lives. Among them were 
Hon. George Bancroft, Hon. Caleb Gushing, Pro- 
fessor Alva Woods and George B. Emerson. He 
studied law under Hon. Samuel M. Burnside, and 
was admitted to practice at the Massachusetts bar, 
but owing to his extensive local interests never en- 
tered actively into the practice of the legal pro- 
fession, though a well read and highly capable at- 
torney. His own business interests kept his time 
fully occupied, but his legal schooling was of lasting 
benefit to him in after life. While he never sought 
office, he yielded to the calls of his fellow-citizens, 
and served in various prominent positions, all of 
which he filled with a most thorough completeness. 



Among the places of trust thus accepted by him 
were those of selectman, 1839; representative in the 
general court of Massachusetts, 1838-39; senator, 
1846-47, and alderman during the first year Wor- 
cester was an organized city, 1848. In i860 and 
again in 1872 he was elected presidential elector 
from his state. As early as 1840 the records show 
he was an active member of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, a member of its council from Octo- 
ber, 1853, and president in 1854, continuing as such 
for more than thirty years. He was the third presi- 
dent of the Worcester Free Public Library, and 
served from 1864 to 1865, and again from 1868 to 
1872, inclusive. He generously contributed toward 
the reading rooms connected with this library. He 
was also a member of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. The degree of Doctor of Laws was con- 
ferred on him by Harvard University in 1875. He 
was overseer of the University for two full terms 
from 1871 to 1883. He was also a conspicuous figure 
in the history of the Worcester Free Institute, now 
the Polytechnic Institute; was its first president, an 
office which he held until his death in 1S84; he gave 
the valuable land on which the buildings stand, 
and contributed liberally to the support of the in- 
stitution. 

In reviewing his many responsible financial 
trusts it is found that from 1845, when Hon. Daniel 
Waldo died, for more than thirty-nine years he 
served as president of the Worcester Bank, and was 
for fifty-two years one of the directors, being first 
elected in 1832. He also held the office of president 
of the Worcester County Institution for Savings for 
a quarter of a century, resigning in 1871. He was 
made a director of the Worcester & Nashua Railroad 
at the date of its organization in 1845, and was its 
president from 1850 to 1851. At Lincoln Square he 
built the factory long known as "Court Mills," for 
the manufacture of farm irnplements, and when 
the site was needed for other purposes he built for 
the Ames Plow Company (which had succeeded to 
the business of the earlier partnership), a large fac- 
tory on Prescott street. He built the first wire-mill 
on Grove street, and enlarged the works to adapt 
them to the expanding business, finally selling the 
site to the Washburn & Moen Manufacturing Com- 
pany. He built other large factories on Union 
street. 

While busy with a multitude of cares, he neg- 
lected not the weightier matters. He was identified 
as a member of the Second Parish Unitarian Church, 
in which he ever took a deep interest. In all of his 
relations he was every inch a man, honored and 
trusted by a wide circle of friends throughout the 
commonwealth. Whether he be viewed from a social, 
religious, civic, or financial point of view, he always 
showed a full, well rounded character — a genuine 
type of American citizenship. His personal manner 
was genial, courteous and obliging to a marked de- 
gree. His own interests were always gauged by the 
best interests of liis friends and neighbors. He was 
a well-read gentleman, deeply versed in historical 
and antiquarian lore, art and literature, in which he 
took great delight, with the added years of his 
busy, eventful life. 

During his latter years he accomplished much 
for the substantial improvement of the northern por- 
tion of his home city, aiding very materially in 
building up a great manufacturing centre. He built 
the spacious business block on Lincoln Square, and 
in 1S37 his residence on Highland street. His 
father's ancient "mansion" in which he was born, 
presents at this writing about the same homelike 
appearance that it did a century ago, when it was 
occupied by a trustworthy loyal revolutionary 
patriot. 




<2^U/?^, ^ ^t^i^^ 



^^t^-c 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Of his domestic relations it may be said that no 
more affectionate husband or loving parent ever 
graced a iSlassachusetts home and fireside. His 
tarst wife, to whom he was married November 7, 
1833, was Rebekah Scott Dean, of Charlestovvn, New 
Hampshire, who died July 24, 1843, leaving as their 
only child, Stephen Salisbury, Jr. He next married 
Nancy Hoard, widow of Captain George Lincoln, 
who died September 4, 1853. In 1855 he married 
Mary Grosvenor, widow of Hon. Edward D. Bangs, 
former secretary of state for Massachusetts ; she 
died September 25, 1864. He died August 24, 1884, 
in his eighty-seventh year. In the language of one 
who had long known him, "He was a considerate 
gentleman of the old school type, a model of which 
this generation has none too many imitators." At 
his funeral the Rev. Andrew P. Peabody, DD., 
LL. D., used for his text, "We all do fade as a 
leaf." With his demise a generous property passed 
to his only child, Stephen Salisbury, Jr., a consid- 
erable portion of this property being composed of 
farm lands lying in close proximity to the business 
portion of the city of Worcester. The son, with 
wise business discretion, erected many dwellings, 
factories and business blocks thereon, thereby con- 
tributing greatly to the growth and prosperity of the 
city, and a proportionate increase in valuation to 
the estate. 

(V) Hon. Stephen Salisbury is one whose name 
is familiar to every citizen of Worcester, whO' has 
any knowledge of the city and its principal institu- 
tions. His local pride has been evidenced by his 
many generous acts for the public welfare, and it 
is justly to be said that scarcely any undertaking 
of magnitude has been attempted during recent years 
without his co-operation, directly or indirectly. 

The only son of Stephen and Rebekah Scott 
(Dean) Salisbury, he was born i\Iarch 31, 1835, '" 
Worcester, in one of the brick houses near the end 
of Main street, opposite the court house. He began 
his education in an infant school taught by Mrs. 
Levi Heywood, on Main street. When six years old 
he passed the winter of 1841-42 with his parents in 
Savannah, Georgia. In the latter year he attended 
the private school of i\Irs. Jonathan Wood, at the 
corner of Main and School streets, Worcester, 
Massachusetts, and for a short time in 1844 was a 
pupil in Miss Bradford's school in Boston. In 
184s he was a student in the grammar school under 
Warren Lazell, later kept by C. B. Metcalf, until 
1848, when he entered the Worcester High School, 
then in charge of Nelson Wheeler. He matriculated 
in Harvard College in 1852 and graduated there- 
from in 1856 after completing the four years' 
course. After his graduation he went to Berlin and 
became a student in the Frederick William Uni- 
versity. During the spring of 1857 he attended 
lectures at the Ecole de Droit, in Paris. He spent 
the summer and autumn with his classmates Rice 
and Kinnicutt in England, Scotland and Ireland, 
and late in the year visited Turkey, Asia Minor and 
Greece, including a month's tour on horseback, ac- 
companied by a guide. This trip gave him much 
interesting and valuable information concerning the 
country and customs of Greece. Afterward he re- 
sumed his studies at Berlin, then re-visiting Paris, 
and set out with his father's family upon a tour 
covering portions of Italy, England, Scotland, Ire- 
land and Wales. In December, 1858, after an ab- 
sence of more than two j'ears, he returned to Wor- 
cester, and took up bookkeeping for a time as a 
special study. He subsequently entered the law 
office of Dewey and Williams as a student of law, 
and in 1859 entered Harvard Law School. Two 
years later he received the degree of Bachelor of 
Laws, and was admitted to the bar in Worcester in 



October, 1861. During the following winter months 
he visited David Casares, a college classmate, in 
Yucatan, where he made a study of the Maya In- 
dians' ruins and monuments. In 1885 he traveled 
through the same country and other portions of 
^lexico and Cuba, re-examining some of the ruins 
which he had seen on his former visit. In 1888 he 
again visited Europe, his tour including France, 
Belgium, Holland and Spain. In Spain, especially, 
he found much to interest him, as also in portions 
of Portugal. He was also an extensive traveler in 
his own country, and with his taste for the study of 
history and natural history became possessed of a 
large fund of useful knowledge, a review of which 
he has given to American societies of historical 
investigation. 

Mv. Salisbury early entered into the responsi- 
bilities of business life. In 1863 he became a 
trustee of the State Mutual Life Assurance Com- 
pany of Worcesf«er. In 1865 he was chosen a director 
of the Worcester National Bank, and after the death 
of his father (in 1884) succeeded him in the presi- 
dency. In 1877 he became a trustee and member 
of the board of investment of the Worcester County 
Institution for Savings, of which his father had 
been president ; and in 1882 he succeeded the late 
Governor Alexander H. Bullock as its president. 
He was also a director of the old Worcester & 
Nashua and of the Boston, Barre & Gardner Rail- 
roads. He also gave much attention to public affairs. 
In 1S64, 1865 and 1866 he was a member of the 
common council of Worcester, and president of the 
board during his last term. In 1889 he was made 
one of the commissioners of the sinking funds of 
the city, and served in that capacity to the time of 
his death, November 16, 1905. As a Republican he 
represented the first Worcester district in the state 
senate in 1893, 1894 and 1895, serving as chairman 
of the committees on education, banks and banking, 
and the committee on the treasury. In all these 
various positions he displayed the qualities of the 
well equipped man of affairs, and discharged every 
trust with scrupulous fidelity. 

Mr. Salisbury was conspicuously active and use- 
ful in his relation to many educational, historical 
and charitable institutions, devoting to them not 
only his service, but liberally of his means. He 
was a prominent member of the Worcester Lyceum 
and Natural History Association, vice president of 
the Worcester Agricultural Society,, a director of 
the State Mutual Life Assurance Company, a trustee 
of Clark University from its founding in 1887 until 
his death, and was at one time its treasurer. He was 
also a trustee of Leicester Academy, and for ten 
years served as treasurer of the Music Hall Asso- 
ciation, as well as one of its directors. He was 
a trustee of the City Hospital at its incorporation 
in 1872, and secretary for eighteen years ; trustee of 
the INIemorial Hospital, and secretary for ten years, 
and vice president of St. Vincent Hospital. He was 
also a trustee of Rural Cemetery, and secretary 
of Hope Cemetery. Mr. Salisbury became a mem- 
ber of the American Antiquarian Society in 1863, 
a member of its council in 1874, vice-president in 
1884, and in 1887 was elected president, a position 
which he occupied to the time of his death, and by 
his will this society received about two hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars and his library. In 1884 he 
was elected a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic 
Institute, and president in 1895, to which institution 
he recently gave three hundred thousand dollars. 
He was a member of the faculty of the Peabody 
J\Iuseum of Archaeology connected with Harvard 
Universit}'; a member of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, to which institution by his will he 
gave five thousand dollars ; a member of the Wor- 



8 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



cester County Horticultural Societj-, and formerly 
its president ; the American Geographical Society ; 
the New England Historic Genealogical Society; the 
Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica 
and the Conservatorio Yucateco. In all of these he 
ever maintained a deep and intelligent interest. His 
writings include important papers on the people of 
Yucatan and their arts, which he contributed to the 
American Antiquarian Society. He also translated 
several valuable papers from the German of Dr. 
Valentine on the same and kindred subjects. In 
1888 he prepared and read an exhaustive paper on 
"Early Books and Libraries." Mr. Salisbury was 
an accomplished linguist, and enjoyed a good speak- 
ing knowledge of the Spanish and other languages. 

Mr. Salisbury's public spirit was shown not only 
by his interest in municipal and state affairs, but 
his more tangible works show him to have had 
at heart the beauty and convenience of the city. 
Among his public benefactions may be further men- 
tioned a building for the City Hospital, a laboratory 
and electrical station for the Worcester Polj-technic 
Institute; eighteen acres of land bordering on 
Salisbury Pond given to the city in 1S87, and by 
him named Institute Park ; a lot of land to the 
Worcester Society of Antiquity and contributions 
to their building fund, and by will another lot of 
land and five thousand dollars. In 1896 he gave 
land for the Worcester Art Museum, and con- 
tributed with other citizens funds for the erection 
of a museum building and for the endowment of 
the corporation, and by his will made that institu- 
tion his residuary legatee. In 1899 he gave land 
for a building for the Worcester Woman's Club, 
which has been recently erected. In 1900 Mr. Salis- 
bury built on the summit of Bancroft Hill, one of 
the most prominent elevations in Worcester, a gate- 
way of rough stone, known as Bancroft Tower, 
which affords an excellent opportunity for observa- 
tion. This has been opened to the public, together 
with the grounds surrounding it. 

It is unusual in any family for one generation to 
succeed another during so long a period of time as 
that between John Salisbury in 1640 and his repre- 
sentative of the present day, without degeneration in 
some instance. Of the Salisbury family it is to be 
said that from the emigrant ancestor down the name 
has been a synonym for industry, integrity, public- 
spirit, and civic duties ably and faithfully performed. 
Each bearer of the name, in his own generation, has 
shown the faculty of making his work bear fruits 
beneficial to the general welfare of his fellow-citi- 
zens, and in no instance has he hesitated to devote 
himself, intellect and means to these ends. 

The late Mr. Salisbury never married. The 
value of his estate at the time of his decease, which 
at this writing has not been settled, has been by 
estimate fixed at from three to four millions of 
dollars. 

WASHBURN FAMILY. This name is derived 
from two simple words — wash, which imples a swift 
current of a stream, and burne (or bourne), signi- 
fying a brook or small stream. It has been said of 
this family, whose origin is in England, carrying a 
. coat-of-arms, that the posterity of John Washburn, 
who was the first emigrant to locate in New Eng- 
land in 1632, "will seldom find occasion to blush 
upon looking back upon the past lives of those 
from whom they have descended. Fortunate indeed, 
may the generations now in being, esteem themselves, 
if they can be sure to bequeath to their posterity 
an equal source of felicitation." 

In this illustrious family have been found some 
of our nation's greatest characters, in public and 
private life, including great lawyers, statesmen and 



military men in all of the American wars. Maine, 
Vermont, Massachusetts and Wisconsin have each 
had governors from this Washburn family, and 
three brothers served as congressmen from three 
states at the same time, and all with much ability. 
Authors and college graduates may be found to a 
score or more, who have left their impress upon the 
world. As manufacturers, they have excelled, and 
wherever wire goods and wire fencing are known, 
there is found the name Washburn as being pioneers 
in this line. 

(I) John Washburn, the original immigrant, 
who settled at Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1632, 

married Margery , and by her was born 

a son named John, of Bridgewater, who married in 
1645 Eliza Mitchell. His father was secretary of 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and he, with his two 
sons, John and Philip, were able to bear arms in 
1643. The immigrant and his son John were among 
the original fifty-four persons who became proprie- 
tors of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in 1645. They 
bought the lands of the old Sachem Massasoit, for 
seven coats of one and a half yards each, nine 
hatchets, eight hoes, twenty knives, four moose 
skins, ten and a half yards of cotton cloth. The 
transfer was signed by Allies Standish, Samuel Nash 
and Constant Southworth. 

(II) John Washburn was born in England, 
1621, and his brother Philip at the same place in 
1624. He died unmarried. John (II) and his wife 
Eliza Mitchell had these children : John, married 
Rebecca Lepham ; Thomas, married (first) Abigail 
Leonard and (second) Deliverance Packard; Jo- 
seph, married Hannah Latham; Samuel, married 
Deborah Packard; Jonathan, married Mary 
Vaughan ; Benjamin, died on the Phipps expedition 
to Canada ; Mary, married Samuel Kingsley ; Eliza- 
beth, married (first) James Howard and (second) 
Edward Sealy; Jane, married William Orcutt; 
James, married Mary Bowden; Sarah, married John 
Ames. 

(III) Samuel Washburn, son of John (2), called 
"Sergeant," was born in 1651 at Duxbury, Massa- 
chusetts. He married Deborah Packard, by whom he 
had six children, including Israel. 

(IV) Israel Washburn, born at Bridgewater, 
1684, married Waitstill Sumner in 1708, and had four 
children — one named Israel. 

(V) Israel Washburn, who settled at Rayn- 
ham, was born August 11, 1718, and married Leah 
Fobes. He was committeeman of "Inspection and 
Safety" and captain of a train band, 1774, and served 
a short time in the revolutionary war. His son 
was Israel. 

(VI) Israel Wahburn, son of Israel Washburn 
(5), was born in 1775, and married a Miss King in 

1783. He served in the revolution and was at the 
Lexington alarm. He served in the general court 
and was a member of the constitutional convention. 
He talked but little and made but one speech in 
public life. He died at Raynham, 1841. Of his 
ten children Israel (VII) was one. 

(VII) Israel Washburn, son of Israel (6), was 
born at Raynham, Massachusetts, November 18, 

1784, died at Livermore. Maine, September i, 1876. 
He went to Maine in 1806 and taught school for a 
time and then engaged in ship and boat building. He 
removed to Livermore in 1809 and bought a farm, 
store and goods, and continued in trade until 1829. 
This farm was later and is still known as the "Nor- 
lands." He represented his "district of Maine" be- 
fore it had been set off from Massachusetts, which 
was in 1820. He served in 1815, 1816, 1S18 and 
1819. Toward the end of his life he was afflicted by 
blindness and his friends used to read the news to 
him, of which he never tired. He was great in 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



9 



cheerfulness, rivaled Lincoln in story-telling and 
could remember events well. It is said he could 
name all congressmen and give the district to which 
they belonged, when he himself had three sons in 
congress. 

His noble son, Hon. Elihu B., of Illinois fame, 
wrote from Paris, when Minister to France, as 
follows : 

"This is the eighty-sixth birthday of my father. 
All hail lo the glorious, great hearted, great headed, 
noble old man! In truth, the noblest Roman of them 
all. How intelligent, how kind, how genial, how 
hospitable, how true !" 

This same worthy son had carved on his father's 
monument at death, "He was a kind father and an 
honest man." Passers by. to-day, may see this in 
the cemetery overlooking the family place, "The 
Norlands." 

(VIII) Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, the only mem- 
ber who still clung to the final "e" on his name, 
was the son of Israel (7), born at Livermore, 
Maine, September 23, 1816, and died at Chicago, 
Illinois, October 22, 1887, aged seventy-one years. 
In his early manhood, he taught school for ten dol- 
lars per month and "boarded round." In 1836 he 
entered Rents Hill Seminary, and in 1839 the Cam- 
bridge Law School. In 1840 he moved to Illinois, 
practicing law at Galena. In 1852 he was elected to a 
seat in congress, continuing sixteen years, and upon 
retirement was known as the "Watch Dog of the 
U. S. Treasury" and also as "Father of the House." 
He swore into office Schuyler Colfax and James G. 
Blaine as speakers. To him and William Seward 
alone did Abraham Lincoln confide the secret of 
the running of his train from Philadelphia to Wash- 
ington, March, i86r, when Washburne had the tele- 
graph wires cut, fearing trouble would ensue en route. 
Both Seward and Washburne agreed to meet him 
at the depot in Washington, but Washburne was the 
only friend who did in fact meet him. He was a 
constituent and admirer of General Grant, who 
owed to him promotion to high office. In 1869 Grant 
offered him a place in his cabinet as secretary of 
state, which he soon resigned and accepted the 
office of Minister to France, and was there during 
the trying days of the siege and commune, coinci- 
dent with the Franco-Prussian war. He remained 
there nearly nine years, and longer than any prede- 
cessor. During the Andrew Johnson impeachment 
trial, he was chairman of the house committee. 

He married in 1845, Adele Gratiot, granddaugh- 
ter of Stephen Hemstead, of Connecticut, a soldier 
of the revolutionary war. She died March, 1887, 
aged sixty, her husband only surviving her until 
October 22. Their son, Gratiot Washburne, was 
graduated from the Highland Military Academy of 
Worcester and from the Naval Academy at New- 
port, Rhode Island. He was secretary of the United 
States legation under his father in France, and was 
one of four upon whom the French government be- 
stowed the Cross of Legion of Honor for services 
performed during the siege of Paris. He was 
secretary of the American Exposition at London in 
1886, and died suddenly in Kentucky. 

(.VIII) Governor Israel Washburn, son of Israel 
(7), was born at Livermore, Maine, June 6, 1813. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1823. He was in the 
legislature in 1842 and congressman from Maine 
in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth, 
thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth United States congresses 
He was first a Whig and later a Republican. He 
was elected governor of Maine in i860, and Lin- 
coln made him collector of the port of Portland 
in 1863. He was a literary man and also lectured 
much. He married (first) iNIary M. Webster and 
(second) Robina Naper Brown, of Boston, in 1876. 



He died May 12, 1883, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
His son Israel was an officer in the Sixteenth 
Maine Regiment during the civil war period. 

(VIII) General C. C. Washburn, e.x-Governor 
of Wisconsin, was fully named Cadwallader Colden 
Washburn. He was the son of Israel, born at 
Livermore, Maine, 1818. He was a land surveyar, 
went to Illinois in 1839, and settled at Mineral 
Point, Wisconsin. He practiced law, and in 1859 
moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin. He was elected to 
congress, serving from 1856 to 1862. He was dele- 
gate to the peace convention in 1861, and raised a 
cavalry regiment the same year and was made 
colonel. During 1862 he was promoted to brigadier- 
general and then to major-general, and was at 
Vicksburg with Grant and under General Banks in 
Louisiana. In 1867 he was elected to a seat in con- 
gress from Wisconsin, serving until 1871, when he 
was chosen governor of Wisconsin. 

(VII) Governor Emory Washburn, of JNIassa- 
chusetts, descended from the original immigrant 
thus : I. John and Margery ; 2. John and Eliza- 
beth Mitchell ; 3. Joseph and Hannah Latham ; 4. 
Joseph and Hannah Johnson ; 5. Seth and Mary 
Harrod; 6. Joseph and Ruth Davis; 7. Governor 
Emory, who was born in Leicester, Worcester 
county, Massachusetts, 1800, and graduated at 
Williams College, 1817. In 1826 and 1827 we find 
him in the general court of Massachusetts, and in 
1841 and 1842, state senator, in 1844 judge of the 
court of common pleas, from which bench he re- 
signed in 1847, and in 1853 he became governor of 
the state he had so faithfully served. He was made 
a professor in law at Harvard College in 1856, con- 
tinuing until March 18, 1877, when death claimed 
him. He was a noted author of many law works, 
genealogy and general historical books and papers, 
including the excellent "History of Leicester," his 
native place. He married Marianna C. Giles, who 
bore him three children. 

(V) John Washburn, son of John (4), was born 
in 1699, married Abigail Johnson, and had these 
children: John, born 1730, married Lydia Prince; 
Abigail, born 1732; Mary, born 1734; INIercy, born 
1736; Seth, born 1738, married (first) Faer How- 
ard, (second) Ann Fullerton, (third) Deborah 
Churchill; Phillip; Thankful, born 1742. 

(VI) Seth Washburn, born 1738, married as 
above three wives and his children were : Fear, born 
1766; Perris; Abigail; Seth born 1769, married Sarah 
Adams; Ichabod ; Anna (by second wife); Ephraim 
(by third wife). 

(VII) Captain Ichabod Washburn, son of Seth 
(6), was born about 1771, and in 1793 married 
Sylvia Bradford, whose ancestors came in the "May- 
flower," through the following line: Governor Will- 
iam Bradford, who came on that ship, had a son, 
William, whose son, Samuel, had a son, Gamaliel, 
whose son, Gamaliel, Jr., had a son named Peabody, 
whose daughter, S}'lvia, was the wife of Captain 
Ichabod Washburn, who was a sea captain and lost 
his life while off the coast at Portland, Maine, 
helping to care for his brother seamen who were 
sick with yellow fever. He died at twenty-eight 
years of age. leaving three children : Ichabod 
(VIII) and Charles (twins), who subsequently 
came to Worcester, and a daughter Pamelia. 

(VIII) Ichabod Washburn, the founder of the 
great wire industry in Worcester, which is now a 
prominent factor in the American Steel and Wire 
Company, son of Ichabod and Sylvia (Bradford) 
Washburn, was born August 11. 1798, at Kingston, 
Massachusetts. His father died when he was but 
an infant, and his mother was left to support her- 
self and little ones by working at her loom and 
spinning wheel. When nine years of age Ichabod 



10 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Washburn went to live with a harness maker in 
Duxbury, Massachusetts, where he did chores and 
learned to stitch harness, attending school during 
the winter terms. After five years' experience at 
Duxbury, he returned to Kingston and worked for 
a time in a small cotton factor}-. At the age of 
sixteen years he was employed as an apprentice to 
learn the blacksmith's trade with Jonathan and 
David Trask, of Leicester. After a service of 
two years the firm dissolved partnership, and young 
Washburn found employment with Nathan jMuzzey 
at the same trade, engaging to work for two years, 
to receive fifty dollars for his services, be allowed 
twelve weeks schooling and furnished with board 
and clothing. Wr. Muzzey at the end of a year left 
Leicester for the adjoining town of Auburn, Wash- 
burn accompanying him, continuing until his twen- 
tieth birthday. In the winter of 1817 and 1818 he 
went to Millbury to work as journeyman, but within 
a few weeks the news came that a position as cleric 
in Jilr. Warren's grocery store in Portland, JNIaine, 
was awaiting him. his sister having become in the 
meantime Mrs. Warren. A brief trial at clerking 
in his brother-in-law's store convinced him that he 
was better adapted to mechanical than mercantile 
pursuits, and he Teturned to Millbury and began 
making ploughs on his own account. He had no 
funds, but, though a stranger, came to Worcester 
and presented his Case to jNIr. Daniel Waldo, a man 
of means, who heai"d his story and upon his own 
note gave him money with which to operate. This 
was his start financially. In 1819 he worked in an 
armory making ramrods, and' in the autumn of that 
year came to Worcester. 

In 1820 he engaged in business with William H. 
Howard, manlifacturing woolen machinery and lead 
pipe, and soon thereafter purchased Mr. Howard's 
interest in the business. In 1822 he took as a part- 
ner Benjamin Goddard, and with the increase of 
business they employed thirty workmen. They made 
the first condenser and long-roll spinning-jack that 
was made in the county. During the winter of 1830 
and 1831, while on School street, he e.xperimented 
in the manufacture of wooden screws. Later he 
and Goddard sold their business and moved to 
Northville, where the manufacture of wire and 
wooden screws began, the wire being made by Wash- 
burn & Goddard and the screws by C. Reed & Com- 
pany, associates. They also made card-wire. Some 
in 1836-37 the screw business was removed to Prov- 
idence, and finally r'"='-ged into the "American Screw 
Company." In Januar\', 1835. 'le dissolved with 
Goddard at Northville, and continued the wire busi- 
ness in a building erected for him by Stephen Salis- 
bury, on Mill brook, w'hich furnished the power for 
driving the crude and experimental machinery then 
in use. This building was forty by eighty feet, three 
stories high. In 1835 his twin brother, Charles, came 
from Harrison, Maine, where he had been practic- 
ing law, and formed a partnership with his brother, 
which terminated in January, 1S38, but soon after 
the substitution of the "wire-block'' by Ichabod Wash- 
burn, which revolutionized the industry, the busi- 
ness began rapidly to multiply, and in 1842 they 
again associated themselves as partners, the firm 
name being I. & C. Washburn. 

In 1847 the two Washburns put in a rolling mill 
of their own at Quinsigamond, and soon the firm of 
Washburn, Moen & Company was formed. The 
same, however, was dissolved in 1849, the business 
going to Henry S. Washburn, a member of the firm. 
The firm of I. & C. Washburn that same year was 
dissolved and a division of the plant made, Charles 
taking the part at Quinsigamond. April i, 1859, 
Philip L. Moen became a partner of Ichabod Wash- 
burn, the style of the firm being I. Washburn and 



Company. Ichabod Washburn spent much time in 
experimenting in the tempering of wire that it might 
be put to various uses, and at the suggestion of Mr. 
Chickering, of Boston, he produced samples of 
piano string wire, an article which hitherto had been 
brought from England. That branch of the busi- 
ness has been conducted with success up to the 
present time, as well as other musical instrument 
wires. In July, 1859, Ichabod Washburn employed 
one hundred and twenty men and made three tons 
of wire per day. In 1863 he and his partner built 
a cotton-mill, which they operated about ten years, 
producing sufficient yarn to cover four tons of temp- 
ered crinoline wire per day. January, 1865, Ichabod 
Washburn and Mr. Moen changed the firm name 
to "I. Washburn and Moen Iron Works" — capital 
stock, five hundred thousand dollars. In 1868 it be- 
came the Washburn-JNIoen ^lanufacturing Company, 
with one million dollars capital. In 1889 the plant 
was operated by three thousand workmen. A few 
years since the whole business was merged into the 
American Steel & Wire Company. 

Ichabod Washburn married (first) Ann G. 
Brown, October 6, 1S23. She was the daughter of 
Mrs. David Brown, with whom he boarded in 
Worcester. One son was born to them, December 
I, 1824. but survived only a few days. Two daugh- 
ters were born to them : Eliza Ann, born June 4, 
1826, married Philip L. Moen, and died at the age 
of twenty-six years ; and Lucy Pamelia, born March 
8, 1832, who died when twenty-two years old. The 
mother and little granddaughter soon passed from 
earth, leaving Mr. Washburn alone in the world. 
He founded the Worcester Memorial Hospital to 
the fond memory of his two daughters. For his 
second companion he married Elizabeth B. Cheever. 

Of his political standing, let it be recorded that 
he was a strong anti-slavery advocate and gave of 
his means abundantly, and urged by a petition to 
President Lincoln the emancipation of the colored 
race. After he formation of the Republican party, 
he ever voted and worked and paid for the princi- 
ples it advocates. He believed that capital and 
labor should alike be busv and ever put to produc- 
ing for the world. He was state senator in i860 
and performed his part faithfully and well. 

He was a life-long Christian and did very much 
to aid the church. He was one of the first four 
deacons of the Union Church, and assisted materi- 
ally in building that church. He was treasurer of 
the Church Anti-Slavery Society in 1859. From his 
own funds, he erected the Mission Chapel on Sum- 
ner street, Worcester. Space in this volume pre- 
cludes the enumeration of but few of the benevo- 
lent causes and benevolent industries to which he 
gave most lavishly, believing as he did that money 
was made to use and to use for mankind. He was 
a systematic giver and in proportion to his income. 
He felt it a duty to donate, and like Peabody, his 
business multiplied on his hand by liberal giving to 
worthy causes, hence he headed all subscription pa- 
pers with a Christianlike pleasure. From him came 
twenty-five thousand dollars to further on the build- 
ing of the Mechanics' Hall, so appreciated today and 
for the past decades used for great audiences, re- 
ligious and political. He also was one of the origi- 
nal promoters of the "Bay State House." He de- 
spised intoxicating drinks and tobacco, giving time 
and wealth for tlieir suppression. When he built 
his first lumber house, he would not ask men to 
help "raise" it, if they asked to have liquor, as was 
customary, but preferred to pay cash to men who 
would do it without intoxicants, furnishing instead 
lemonade and "small beer." Among his benefactions 
should not be forgotten the large amounts he gave 
toward the erection and support of educational and 




^— -^cfc/t-<^<^ a/7 /rtc^l^^^'-'-^^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



II 



religious institutions: Home for the Aged (eiglily- 
tive thousand dollars) ; IMemorial Hospital, the 
'Freednien's Cause, the Home and Foreign Missions, 
Orphans' Home, etc., scattered from Maine to 
Georgia. But even the lives of the truly great and 
good must cease. Seized by a stroke of paralysis in 
February, l86S, he lingered on vmtil death came 
December of the same year. His last words were 
spoken to a brother, "It is all right," and thus Wor- 
cester and the world lost one of her noblest sons, 
a self-made, wealthy, devoted Christian. 

(.Vni) Hon. Charles Washburn, twin brother 
of Ichabod Washburn, was born in Kingston, Massa- 
chusetts, August II, 1798. He selected as his voca- 
tion the profession of a lawyer, and after receiving 
the advantages of a common school education en- 
tered Brown University, from which institution he was 
graduated with the class of 1S20. He was admitted to 
the bar, and in 1823 was practicing his profession in 
Otistield, Maine. The following year he removed 
to Harrison, same state, where he continued to labor 
in his chosen profession, gaining special distinc- 
tion as a lawyer. During the years 1830 and 1833 
he served his district in the jNIaine legislature. In 
183s he came to Worcester, Massachusetts, to join 
his brother Ichabod in the wire industry, and in 1842 
the firm of I. & C. Washburn was formed and two 
years later the rolling-milj at Quinsigamond was 
built. In 1849, through a dissolution of the firm and 
a division of the property, the plant at Quinsigamond 
came into the hands of Charles Washburn, who was 
actively engaged in conducting this branch of the 
wire business, which he continued until the year 
1868, when the Washburn and Moen Manufactur- 
ing Company was formed, this industry becoming 
a part of the great business plant, As early as 1849 
Mr. Washburn served as a member of the school 
committee; in 1849 and 1S30 he was chosen a mem- 
ber of the common council, having been president 
of the same for three years; in 1851 was a member 
of the Massachusetts legislature, and in 1854 served 
in the board of aldermen. Mr. Washburn retained 
an interest in the firm of the Washburn & Moen 
Manufacturing Company, and was a member of the 
board of directors up to the time of his death, 
October 27, 1875. 

Mr. Washburn married Zibeah Cary Blake, daugh- 
ter of Grenfill Blake, of Otisfield. ;Maine, November 
30, 1826; she died August 12, 1845. Their children 
were: Charles F. (IX), born August 23, 1827; 
Grenfill B.. JNIay 16, 1829; Lucia B., October 29, 
1730; Grenfill H., April 20, 1833; George I., May 26, 
1835; Henry B., November 10, 1837; Maurice B., 
July 25, 1839; Zibeah C, April 15, 1844; Maurice, 
August 9, 1845. Charles Washburn married for his 
second wife Anna F. Brown, February 2, 1847. 
There were three children of this marriage — a son 
John, and two daughters, Ellen and Anna. 

(IX) Charles Francis Washburn, son of Hon. 
Charles Washburn, having acquired an excellent 
education in the schools of Worcester and Leicester 
Academy, from which he graduated, was prevented 
by illness from attending college, but he added to 
his academical knowledge a liberal store of general 
information from his personal reading and observa- 
tion. .\fter an extended trip to Europe he entered 
his father's rolling mills, and from the beginning 
gave evidence of that mechanical skill and business 
sagacity that characterized him in his later career. 
He mastered every detail of the industry, working 
in all departments, and gaining perfect mastery of 
them. In 1857 he was admitted to partnership with 
his father under the firm name of Charles Wash- 
burn & Son. The business expanded rapidly as new 
methods made possible new products, and the 
Quinsigamond plant was finally incorporated, in 



i86g, with that on Grove street as the Washburn & 
Moen Manufacturing Company, and grew to oper- 
ate a capital of $1,000,000, and gave direct employ- 
ment to some four thousand people. Originally re- 
stricted to the manufacture of wire for card teeth 
and other similar purposes, the factories began the 
making of telegraph wire as soon as the Morse in- 
vention had demonstrated its practicability, and in 
1850 was begun the making of piano wire, in which 
the product of the Washburn mills soon superseded 
the English make in the markets of the United 
States. The company met every necessity as it 
arose where wire could be used — wire for hoop 
skirts between i860 and 1870, and after that the 
great demand for all varieties of barbed wire for 
fencing. During the last ten years it has produced 
vast quantities of iron and steel cables and ropes, 
spiral springs, etc., and, following the introduction 
of electric energy for heating, light and power, 
thousands of tons of wire annually for these pur- 
poses. The yearly output of steel is about 40,000 
tons, and of all products about 100,000 tons. In 
1891 the company also established works at Wau- 
kegan, Illinois, with wire capacity nearly equal to 
that of the parent establishment. 

In the capacity of secretary, director and vice- 
president of the corporation, Mr. Washburn con- 
tinually took a leading part in the administration of 
its business, and to his perseverence and sagacity 
was largely due the great advancements which were 
made from time to time in the development of its 
usefulness and importance, a signal attestation of 
this fact being found in his securing to his company 
the conrol of the barbed wire patents. 

Deeply absorbed in his business Mr. Washburn 
held aloof from public concerns, except in one in- 
stance where he served the city as a member of the 
common council. He was deeply interested, how- 
ever, in benevolent and philanthropic works, and 
rendered zealous and useful service to two of the 
most notable and praiseworthy institutons of his 
city, acting as vice-president of the governing board 
of the Memorial Hospital, founded by his uncle, 
Ichabod Washburn, and as president of the Home 
for Aged Women. Of a sincere, christian tempera- 
ment, he was a communicant of All Saints' Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church. He was a warm advocate of 
free-soil principles in his early days; was an original 
member of the Republican party, and affiliated with 
it earnestly and effectually during the remainder of 
his life. He was a man of culture and refinement, 
delighting in healthful and ennobling literature, and 
devoted his leisure hours tO' his home and library. 
He died July 20, 1893, leaving behind him to his 
family and the community the fragrant memories 
which cling to a noble and useful life in those broad 
ways where such an unselfish man can make his 
every act a benediction upon the thousands who 
surround him. 

Mr. Washburn married, October 10, 1855, Mary, 
the eldest daughter of James M. Whiton, of Boston, 
Massachusetts. Eight children were born to them, 
all sons except one, and all excepting one son sur- 
vived their honored parent. The children were : 
Charles G., born January 28, 1857; James M., died 
in infancy. December 27, 1858; Philip, born August 
2, 1861, died October 6, 1898; Miriam, born July 12, 
1864; Robert M., born January 4, 1868; Henry B., 
born December 2, 1869; Reginald, born October 13, 
1871 ; Arthur, born May 27, 1877. Reginald Wash- 
burn married, August 26, 1903, Dorcas, daughter of 
Hon. Edward S. Beadford, of Springfield, Massa- 
chusetts. Philip Washburn married, June S, 1883, 
Miriam Phillips, youngest daughter of Rev. R. S. 
Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, New York. He had 
five daughters, two of whom died in infancy. 



12 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



(X) Robert Morris Washburn, son of Charles 
Francis and Mary Elizabeth Washburn, was born in 
Worcester, January 4, 1868. He was educated in the 
public schools, and was graduated at the Worcester 
high school in 1886. He received the degree of A. 
B. from Harvard University in 1890. He then 
studied law for one year in the office of Rice, King 
& Rice. He was then admitted a member of the 
second-year class at the Harvard law school, where 
he remained for one year, and in November, 1892, 
was admitted to the Worcester county bar. He is 
a practicing lawyer at 314 Main street, Worcester. 
He is unmarried, living at the homestead estate, 42 
Elm street. He is a member of the Republican city 
committee, 1906, and a vice-president of the Repub- 
lican club of Massachusetts, and a member of the 
Republican Club of Worcester. He is also a mem- 
ber of the Worcester Club, and Quinsigamond Boat 
Club. 

(X) Hon. Charles Grenfill Washburn, son of 
Charles Francis and Mary E. (Whiton) Washburn, 
was born in Worcester, January 28, 1857. He began 
his education in the public schools of his native city, 
was graduated from the Worcester Polytechnic In- 
stitute in 1875, and from Harvard University in 
1880. He subsequently took up the study of law 
and was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1886. He 
has been constantly identified with the manufactur- 
ing interests of the city. In 1880 he established the 
business now conducted by the Wire Goods Com- 
pany, with which he is still connected. In 1882 he 
became treasurer and manager of the Worcester 
Barbed Fence Company, which was subsequently 
absorbed by the Washburn & Moen ^Manufacturing 
Company, and from 1884 to 1891 was a member of 
the last named corporation, and during a part of 
that period served in the capacity of director and 
executive officer. 

A Republican in politics, Mr. Washburn was a 
member of the Massachusetts house of representa- 
tives in 1897-98, in which body he served the first 
year on the committee on mercantile affairs, and 
the second year as chairman of the committee on 
taxation. On the expiration of his term in the lower 
branch he was elected to the state senate from the 
first district of Worcester, serving two terms — 1899 
and 1900. In 1902 be was a member of the com- 
mittee to revise the corporation laws of Massachu- 
setts. He was a delegate to the Republican national 
convention in Chicago, and the Massachusetts mem- 
ber of the committee appointed to notify" Theodore 
Roosevelt of his nomination. He was elected No- 
nember 6, 1906, to the sixtieth congress from the 
Third Massachusetts District. He is a trus- 
tee and president of the Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute. He married, April 25, i88g, 
Caroline Vinton Slater, daughter of Horatio 
N. Slater, of Webster. Their children were : Eliza- 
beth, born 1892, died in infancy; Slater, born August 
5, 1S96; Charles Francis, born May 10, 1898, died 
December 19, 1902; Philip, born October 4, 1899; 
Esther Vinton, born August 10, 1902. 

Mrs. Washburn is a great-granddaughter of 
Samuel Slater, founder of the town of Webster, 
and a manufacturer of much importance in his day. 
He was a native of Derbyshire, England, and 
when fourteen years of age was apprenticed to 
Jedediah Strutt, a partner of Arkwright, the cele- 
brated pioneer in cotton manufacture. The offer 
of a premium for the introduction of the Ark- 
wright machinery into the United States brought 
him to America at the close of his apprenticeship. 
He arrived in New York about December i, 1790, 
and established at Pawtuckct, Rhode Island, a 
manufactory for cotton yarn. In 1812, in partner- 
ship with Bela Tift'any, of South Brimfield, Massa- 



chusetts, under the firm name of Slater & Tiffany, 
he began the erection at Webster, Massachusetts, of 
mills for the manufacture of cotton yarn. During  
the war of 1812 the firm also engaged in the manu- 
facture of broadcloth. In 1816 Mr. Slater purchased 
the interest of his partner, and afterwards associ- 
ated with himself Edward Howard, a practical 
cloth maker. In 1829 Howard sold his interest to 
Samuel Slater and his sons — George B. and Hora- 
tio N. Slater — who conducted business under the 
firm name of Samuel Slater & Sons. From 1835, 
the j'ear of the death of the senior Slater, the sons 
conducted the business until 1843, when occurred 
the death of George B. Slater and Horatio N. 
Slater succeeded to the sole management, in which 
he continued until his death, in 1888, wben his 
nephew and namesake, the father of Mrs. Charles 
G. Washburn, became the owner and manager. The 
business after the death of H. N. Slater, Jr., was 
incorporated as S. Slater & Sons. Samuel Slater, 
the emigrant, was twice married. First, October 2, 
1791, to Hannah, daughter of Oziel Wilkinson. She 
died about 1812, and about 1817 he married Esther, 
daughter of Robert Parkinson, of Philadelphia. His 
first wife bore him nine children, of whom the sev- 
enth was Horatio Nelson Slater. 

(VII) Hon. William Barrett Washburn, son of 
Asa and Phebe (Whitney) Washburn, and grandson 
of Colonel Elijah Washburn and Captain Phineas 
Whitney, was born in Winchenden, January 31, 
1820. He fitted for college at the Westminster and 
Hancock Academies, and was graduated from Yale 
College in 1844. He clerked three years and then 
engaged in the manufacture of doors, chairs and 
wooden-ware at Erving. In 1857 he moved to 
Greenfield, where he lived at the time of his death, 
October 5. 1887. He was a member of the house of 
representatives in 1850 and of the senate in 1854. 
He was a member of congress from 1863 to January 
I, 1872, when he resigned to be inaugurated gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts. April 17, 1874, he resigned 
as governor to fill the unexpired term of Hon. 
Charles Sumner in the United States senate, hold- 
ing the office until March 4. 1875. For many years 
he was president of the Greenfield Bank and one 
of the trustees of Yale College and an overseer of 
Amherst College. He married, September 6, 1847, 
Hannah Sweetster by whom were born two sons 
and four daughters. 

(IX) General Francis Washburn, son of John 
M. Washburn, was born July, 1838, at Lancaster, his 
parents having the April previous removed from 
Boston. From the academy of his native town, at 
the age of sixteen years, he went to serve a regu- 
lar term in the Lawrence Machine Company's shop. 
He next went to the Scientific School of Mining 
and Engineering at Freiburg. Saxony. When in 
1860-1861 the civil war cloud darkened our fair 
national sky, he wrote, "I must hasten my return. 
If the war comes, I shall sail at once." In Decem- 
ber, 1861, he was given a commission in the army, 
which he used as soon as he waited to see his 
father pass from earth. He was mustered in as sec- 
ond lieutenant in the First Massachusetts Cavalry, 
the history of which is well known in the w-ar de- 
partment. He became captain, lieutenant-colonel, 
and in February, 1863, commissioned as colonel, 
which he held at the time of his death. He was 
mortally wounded in the brilliant engagement at 
High Bridge, Virginia, April 6, 1865. His bravery 
was noted by the then Lieutenant-General Grant, 
at whose request he was commissioned brigadier- 
general. Here men fought hand to hand, an un- 
common occurence. He fell from saber stroke and 
pistol shot. He was brought home to the house 
of his brother, Hon. John D. Washburn, where he 




Cj.lOaAJMmM\ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



13 



shortly gave up his young life, being but twenty- 
six years of age. He was called the "White Knight 
of Alodern Cavalry." 

(IX) Hon. John D. Washburn, born in Boston, 
March 27, 1833, was the eldest son of John Mar- 
shall and Harriet (Kimball) Washburn. His par- 
ents removed to Lancaster when he was five years 
old and there his vouth was spent amid those beauti- 
ful surroundings.' In 1S53 he was graduated from 
Harvard College, entering the law, first studying 
with Hon. Emory Washburn and Hon. George F. 
Hoar in 1S54, finally receiving a diploma from the 
Harvard School in 1856. He practised in Worcester 
with Hon. H. C. Rice. He made for himself a place 
of importance among insurance circles, as legal 
adviser. Later he succeeded Hon. Alexander H. 
Bullock as general agent and attorney of the in- 
surance companies in 1866. Through this associa- 
tion he became connected with Governor Bullock 
as chief of the staff from 1866 to 1869, receiving a 
colonel's commission. From 1871 to 1881 he was 
trustee of the Worcester Lunatic Hospital, and from 
1875 to 1885 filled a similar place in the School for 
Feeble Minded. He was a member of the house 
of representatives from 1876 to 1879, and a senator 
from Worcester in 1884. From 1866 to 1880 he was 
a director of the Citizens' National Bank. He was 
also a member of the board of investment for the 
Worcester County Institution for^ Savings ; also 
trustee and treasurer of the Memorial Hospital. In 
1883 he became president of the Merchants' and 
Farmers' Insurance Company. For many years he 
was the councilor and secretary of the American 
Antiquarian Society. During the latter years of his 
life he was appointed as minister to represent this 
country in Switzerland. 

• He married in i860 Mary F. Putnam. Their 
daughter Edith, in 1884, married Richard Ward 
Greene, of Worcester. He died April 4, 1903, leav- 
ing a record in itself, a royal legacy to any com- 
munit}'. He was one of nature's own noblemen. 
Even to the most humble of his constituents, he 
would grant a personal favor and special attention. 
It is believed that exposure to the hot sun, while 
visiting in Paris, affected his head and that from 
this was traced his lingering illness and final death. 

(VIII) William Ansel Washburn, deputy 
sheriff of Worcester, was born in Paxton, Massa- 
chusetts, August 14, 1837. He was the son of John 
and Nancy (Bemis) Washburn. His grandfather 
was Francis Washburn, born in Brockton, 1769, died 
1844; the great-grandfather being Jacob Washburn, 
born in the same place. 

John Washburn, William Ansel Washburn's 
father, was born in Leicester, November 14, 1800, 
and died in 1867. He was a shoemaker and black- 
smith and drove the stage many years between Bos- 
ton and Worcester. He married Nancy Bemis in 
183 1. Their children were Delia, William A. and 
Alice (twins), and Julia. 

William Ansel was reared to farm life and then 
learned the trade of shoemaker with his father. 
When eighteen he left home and came to Worcester, 
securing employment in the Hospital for the Insane 
for four years. Then he clerked for a time, but soon 
began as a nail-maker in the factory of Prouty & 
Allen. He was finally appointed a patrolman on the 
police force in 1863, and two years later was made 
assistant-marshal, holding the same from 1873 to 
1880; again in 1883, and from 1886 to 1893. In 
1893, he, by appointment, was made deputy sheriff 
and deputy jailer. Like many another modern man, 
he is closely identified with civic societies, including 
the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders. He is a 
Knight Templar. Politically he affiliates with the 
Republican party. In his religious belief he ad- 



heres to that of the Universalist faith. November 
29, i860, he married Emily Delano, of Provincetown, 
Massachusetts. 

(VII) Hon. Peter Thatcher Washburn, once 
governor of Vermont, was born in Lynn, Massa- 
chusetts, September 7, 1814, and died at Wood- 
stock, Vermont, February 7, 1870. He was the son 
of Reuben and Hannah Washburn. The father was 
born in Leicester, iMassachusetts, December 30, 
17S1. When Mr. Washburn was but three years of 
age his father removed to Cavendish, Vermont. He 
graduated at Dartmouth College in 1835, ^nd began 
law practice in 183S at Ludlow, Vermont. He be- 
came one of the most marked political figures in 
the state. For eight years, from 1844 to 1852, he 
held the office of supreme court reporter. In 1853-54, 
he was in the legislature, and when the rebellion 
broke out he raised troops and entered the service as 
lieutenant-colonel of the First Regiment from Ver- 
mont, being stationed at Fortress Monroe. He only 
remained in the service about three months, and in 
186 1 was appointed inspector-general of Vermont. 
September, 1869, he was elected governor of Ver- 
mont. He was active with his pen, and in 1844 
published a "Digest of Vermont Reports" and many 
other works of value. 

BARTON FAMILY. Hon. Ira Moore Bartoti was 
a gentleman of unusual qualities as a scholar, jurist 
and judge. He was born in Oxford, Massachu- 
setts, October 25, 1796, and was of the fifth genera- 
tion from Samuel Barton, of Salem, Massachu- 
setts, 1693, and of Sutton, 1718. After preparation 
by a private tutor and at Leicester Academy, he 
entered Brown University and was graduated from 
that institution in 1819. He began the study of 
law with Samuel W. Bridgham, of Providence, con- 
tinuing his legal education with Sumner Barstow, 
of Sutton, and Hon. Levi Lincoln, of Worcester, 
from whose office he entered the Harvard Law 
School, graduating in 1822. He immediately estab- 
lished an office in Oxford, where his recognized 
ability and skill as a legal adviser and advocate 
soon brought him a large practice. 

For three years (1830-31-32) he represented the 
town of Oxford in the state legislature, and in 
1833-34 represented the county of Worcester in 
the state senate, serving for a time as commissioner 
for the revision of the statutes. He removed to 
Worcester in 1834, and two years later was ap- 
pointed by Governor Edward Everett judge of pro- 
bate for the county of Worcester. As the duties of 
the office did not require his entire time, he continued 
his practice in other courts. In 1844 he resigned as 
judge of probate to devote his entire time to his 
growing practice. In 1840 he was chosen presi- 
dential elector, and in 1846 represented the town 
of Worcester in the house of representatives in 
the state legislature. He rendered efficient service 
in behalf of his constituents and the state, exerting 
himself earnestly in favor of an act to extend the 
equity and jurisdiction of our highest court. In 1844 
Judge Barton took as law partner Peter C. Bacon, 
also of Oxford, and two years later William Sum- 
ner Barton, eldest son of the judge, was taken 
into the firm. 

In 1849 Judge Barton went to Europe, where he 
passed nearly two years, enjoying a much needed 
rest. On his return he resumed his practice in the 
firm. He was a member of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, and one of its councillors. He died 
July 18, 1867. and the librarian of that institution, 
Samuel F. Haven, LL. D., in his council report 
of October of that year says of Judge Barton — 
"In every station, public or private, he was dis- 
tinguished for ability, sterling integrity, and earnest 



14 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



devotion to the fullest performance of every duty." 
He was an accomplished lawyer, an upright magis- 
trate, an enlightened patriotic citizen. His widow 
died in Worcester, November 24, 1883. aged eighty- 
three years. Their children were : William Sumner, 
born September 30, 1S24, died July 13, 1899; Hannah 
Maria, born April 21, 1826, died December 
13, 1906; Artemas BuUard, born August 12, 
1828, died June 21, 1831 ; Charles Henry, born 
April 10, 1830, died February 16, 1885 ; Artemas 
Bullard, born December 5, 1831, died April 17, 
1837; Lucy Ann, born July 24, 1834, died Septem- 
ber 25, 1905 ; Francis Augustus, born October 24, 
1836, died January 29, 1898; Edmund Mills, born 
September 27, 1838; George Edward, born July 
30, 1841, died May 29, 1878. 

William Sumner Barton, eldest son of Judge 
Barton, was born in Oxford, September 30, 
1824, and came when ten years of age with 
his parents to Worcester. He attended the 
common schools and also the Worcester Acad- 
emy, was graduated from Brown University 
in 1844, and later received the degree of A. M. 
After studying law in the office of his father and 
law partner, Peter C. Bacon, and attending the Har- 
vard Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 
1846, and became a partner in his father's firm, 
the style of the firm being Barton, Bacon & Barton. 
In June, 1854, he accepted a position in the Bank 
of Commerce, Boston, where he remained until 
January, 1872, when he was elected treasurer and 
collector of taxes for the city of Worcester. From 
1876 until his death he was treasurer of the sinking 
funds, and also from 1872 treasurer of all the trust 
funds of the city. Mr. Barton was a genial, court- 
eous gentleman, prompt and accurate, _ thoroughly 
competent to discharge the duties of his office — an 
ideal public official. He inaugurated^ a new and 
modern system of arranging and keeping accounts, 
which greatly facilitated and simplified the work of 
the department. He was fond of historical study 
and research, and among the articles from his pen 
are, "Sketch of the Bullard Family," "Sketch of the 
Life of the Duchess of Orleans and her Sons, the 
Comte de Paris, and the Due de Chartres," and 
"Epitaphs from the Cemetery on Worcester Coni- 
mon. with occasional notes, references and an in- 
dex." After a faithful, honorable service as city 




BULL.\RD HOUSE. WEST SUTTON 



The Bullard house was built by Ebenezer Waters in 1767, who sold 
it to Mr. Hunt, of whom Dr. Artemas Bullard purchased it about the 
year I8O.0. Here Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher was born, courted and 
married. In the parlor at the left as you enter the house, in which 
Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were married, is a paintinK of Boston Common, 
on the panel over the fire place, and in the chamber overhead is a 
painting of the Boston Tea Party, in a panel over the fireplace there 



treasurer for twenty-seven years, he died July 13, 
1899. 

He married April 4, 1849, Anne Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of Samuel and Mary Gould (Ellery) Jennison, of 
Worcester. He married for his second wife, No- 
vember 22, 1870, Katharine Almy, daughter of Will- 
iam and Jane Byron Ellery, of New York city. 
His widow and five children survive him; three 
daughters by the first marriage, and a son and 
daughter by the second. 

Edmund Mills Barton was born in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, September 27, 1838, the son of the 
late Hon. Ira Moore Barton and his wife, Maria 
Waters (Bullard) Barton. She was born January 
25, 1800, in the town of Northbridge, daughter of 
Artemas Bullard, M. D., and his wife Lucy, eldest 
daughter of Deacon Jesse and Anna Mason White, 
of Northbridge. Dr. Bullard was a successful prac- 
titioner, who acquired an extensive practice, and 
as a citizen was greatly respected and beloved. He 
was appointed by Governor Strong surgeon of the 
local infantry regiment, and was in 1814 elected 
a fellow of the council of the Massachusetts Medi- 
cal Society. Mr. Barton's great-grandfather, Asa 
Bullard, of Holliston, Massachusetts, answered the 
Lexington Alarm, serving in Captain Stapels Cham- 
berlain's company, Colonel Samuel Bullard's regi- 
ment. 

Mr. Barton's boyhood days were chiefly spent 
in Worcester. After passing through the various 
graded schools, he took a course at the Valentine 
school in Northborough. The opening scenes of 
the civil war found him at home, assisting in the 
care of his invalid father. In May, 1863, he went to 
the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, visit- 
ing hospitals on the way, and laboring in the field 
hospitals after the battle of Chancellorsville. He 
then visited the headquarters of General John A. 
Dix, at Fortress Monroe, and accompanied him 
upon his expedition to Bottom's Bridge, near Rich- 
mond. The battle of Gettysburg called him to that 
field for hospital work, and there he was commis- 
sioned field relief agent of the United States sani- 
tary commission, under the authority of the secre- 
tary of war, and was assigned to the Fifth Army 
Corps of the Army of the Potomac. This position 
he held at the front until the end of the war and 
the final review at Washington. (See Marvin's 
"Worcester in the war of the Rebellion" 
for further details.) 

After Mr. Barton's return from the war, 
July I, 1865, he spent a few months in travel 
and on April i, 1866, became assistant 
librarian of the American Antiquarian So- 
ciety, Worcester. Upon the death of the 
eminent librarian, Dr. Samuel Foster 
Haven, he was unanimously elected on 
April 24, 1883, to succeed him in the im- 
portant office. It was a most fitting recog- 
nition of the services of a zealous, pains- 
taking efficient officer, who has at all times 
given the best at his command to further 
the good service of that remarkably well 
equipped institution. For Mr. Barton's 
literary productions, reference is made to 
Ford's partial bibliography of published 
works of members of the American His- 
torical Association, of which Mr. Barton is 
an original life member of the American 
Library Association, of which he was for 
some years a councillor ; life member of the 
American Antiquarian Society; life mem- 
ber of the Massachusetts Library Club, and 
at one time a vice-president ; member of 
the Worcester High School Association, 
and its president in 1894; ^'so a member 




'^^''^//?iirzrt^c^..g^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



15 



of various historical, military, and benevolent so- 
cieties and church clubs. 

He married, September 6, 1871, Abigail Twycross 
Blake, daughter of the Rev. Samuel Paine Blake, 
and they have one daughter and three sons: Lydia 
Maud, born August 2, 1872; Edmund Blake, born 
October 30, 1874; Frederick MacDonald, born June 
19, 1880; and Harold BuUard, born December 21, 
1885. 

WOODCOCK FAAHLY. We find from "His- 
torical Collections" that the first settlement in AtLle- 
borough was commenced by a John Woodcock and 
his sons, about 1669. He built a public house on 
the Bay road, and laid out about three hundred 
acres of land for his farm. He took up in several 
parts of the town six hundred acres, some on his 
own shares, and the rest on rights that he pur- 
chased. His house was occupied for a garrison, 
and was licensed in 1670. Woodcock was a man 
of some consequence in those days, his name often 
appearing in town ofSces and on committees. In 
1691 he was chosen deputy to the general court 
from Rehoboth, and at several other times. He 
was shrewd, hardy and brave, a strong and im- 
placable enemy to the Indians. He died in 1701, 
at an advanced age. After his death seven bullet 
holes were counted in his body. He had two wives : 
Sarah, died May 10, 1676; and Joanna, who sur- 
vived him. His children were: i. John, married 
Sarah Smith, 1673. 2. Israel. 3. Nathaniel. 4. 
Jonathan. 5. Thomas ; and three daughters. 

In August, 1894, the following item appeared in 
the Boston Journal: "The grave of Nathaniel Wood- 
cock, who was killed by the Indians, and who was 
the first white settler in Attleborough, has prob- 
ably been located. The discovery promises to be 
of much historical importance. A few days ago, 
•while workmen were grading at the 'Old North 
Burying Ground,' a grave-stone was ploughed up. 
At present all that can be traced without acids 

is, 'In Memory of N W , died March, 1665.' " 

Nathaniel Woodcock is known to have been killed 
by Indians in March, 1665. 

Nathan Woodcock, the great-grandfather of our 
subject proper, Theodore E., was married in Easton, 
Massachusetts, September 26, 1765, to Elizabeth 
Stone. 

John Woodcock, their son, was born in Easton, 
Massachusetts, October 14, 1775, and died in Leices- 
ter in 1814. He was educated in the common schools 
of his neighborhood, and was a man of keen in- 
tellect, shrewd and practical, with a warmhearted 
nature. He was endowed with the gift of inventive 
genius, and in 1809 he received United States Let- 
ters Patent for a machine, still much in use, for 
splitting leather, and which at that time was of 
great value. He is mentioned by Governor Wash- 
burn in his "History of Leicester," as a very "in- 
genious mechanic," for whose valuable invention 
the town owes a debt of gratitude which ought not 
to be forgotten. He lived l)"t fourteen years after 
coming to Leicester, falling a victim to consump- 
tion, but in those years he had built up, in con- 
nection with his partner, a valuable business, known 
as the manufacture of card clothing, which in the 
hands of descendants and their associates, continued 
many vears. He married, in Easton, December 15, 
1796, Ruth Mehurin, of Easton, Massachusetts, and 
was at the time of marriage of Rutland, Massachu- 
setts. He left three sons and two daughters, whose 
lives were all passed in Leicester, "lisefully and 
honorably:" Hannah, married Benjamin Conklin, 
1826, Ruth, married Dwight Bisco, Esq., January 8, 
1826. John. Josephus, Lucius. 

John Woodcock, son of John (4), was born in 



Rutland, Massachusetts, July 23, 1800, and died in 
Leicester, August 26, 1880. He obtained a common 
school education, and true to the best traditions of 
New England life, as well as to the education he 
had received, he entered early, at the age of seven- 
teen upon a course of business industry. He took 
service with James and John A. Smith, who were 
his father's successors in business. In 1825 he be- 
came, with Hiram Knight, Esq., partner in the sarne 
firm, later known as Woodcock & Knight, and in 
1S48 Theodore E. Woodcock and Dexter Knight, 
sons of seniors, came to the firm under the name 
of Woodcock, Knight & Company. He retired from 
business in 1867. During his life, he gave a good 
share of his time to the public service, was a^ select- 
man, and in other town offices, and in the legislature 
two years. He was always a stanch Republican ; 
was a director of the Leicester Bank from 1836 
to the time of his death, a period of forty-four 
years, and a trustee of the Savings Bank from its 
beginning. He was for ten years chairman of the 
directors of the Public Library of the town in which 
he took a warm interest, and to which he made 
many donations of valuable books. He was known 
as a man of intelligence, and of sound, practical 
judgment, of a memory remarkably exact both of 
persons and events. 

Mr. Woodcock was married, in 1823, to Anna 
Jenkins, born in Cambridge, New York, daughter 
of Joshua and Remember Bowen Jenkins, who were 
both stanch Quakers. Reared in this faith, the 
daughter Anna retained the gentle, loving nature 
so characteristic of the Society of Friends, ever 
ready to lend a helping hand to the sick and un- 
fortunate ; of affable and pleasing manner, her many 
fine qualities endeared her to a large circle of friends. 
Three children were the result of this marriage : 
Theodore Earle; Ann Eliza, married Dr. William 
H. Brown, of Bangor, Maine, in 1851, and died in 
i88g; Ruth Mehurin, married William W. Cald- 
well, Esq., of Newburyport, Massachusetts, Sep- 
tember 21, 1848. Mrs. Woodcock died in 1856. Mr. 
Woodcock married (second) in 1858, Ellen L. 
Burnett, of North Brookfield, Massachusetts, a lady 
of culture, who cared for him most tenderly in 
his declining years, and still survives him. His 
home was always the happy resort of children and 
grandchildren ; his spirit ever affectionate and gen- 
erous. 

Theodore Earle Woodcock, son of John (5), 
was born in Leicester, Massachusetts, February ig, 
T825. He obtained his education in the schools of 
his native town and in Leicester Academy. He com- 
menced at an early age working in his father's 
did factory, learning the business, and in 1848 was 
admitted as a partner in the card clothing manu- 
facturing with his father, the firm known for many 
years as Woodcock, Knight & Company, Mr. Wood- 
cock retiring in 1881, the company dissolving by 
mutual consent, having had a high reputation in 
one form or another, since 1802. when the business 
was established by Winthrop Earle and John Wood- 
cock, grandfather of Theodore E., the subject 
proper of this sketch. 

Mr. Woodcock was chosen director of the Leices- 
ter Bank in 1869, serving until 1904, when the bank 
went into liquidation : is second vice-president of 
the Leicester Savings Bank ; also a member of the 
finance committee ; he has served as selectman in 
his town, and was a director of the Public Library 
for many years. Mr. Woodcock is a man of quiet 
tastes, home-loving and fond of reading. Although 
residing in Worcester, he is still loyal to his native 
town, Leicester, and retains his legal residence there, 
and is also a regular attendant at the John Nelson 
Memorial Church of that place. 



i6 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



In 1S50 he was married to Miss Ellen Caldwell, 
daughter of John Caldwell, Esq., of Newburyport, 
Massachusetts, a most estimable lady of pleasing 
manner, but who was unfortunately an invalid for 
several years, and died in 1873. By this union, three 
children were born, viz.: Anna Ruth; Ellen Orne, 
died in 1873, aged seventeen years; John, died in 
infancy. Anna Ruth married, April 28, 1875, George 
Richardson, of the firm of Clark, Sawyer Co., of 
Worcester. They have two children, and reside in 
Worcester, Massachusetts. 

HON. THOMAS H. DODGE. Among the 
noted and praiseworthy types of manhood whose 
career has brightened and blessed his fellowmen, 
none rises to a more truly noble and lofty attitude 
than an honored son of the "Green Mountain" 
state, of whom the subjoined notice and genealogi- 
cal sketch is .written. With such an abundance of 
real facts from which to draw, one scarcely knows 
which to select for record use and which to leave 
unemployed. The subject of which we write is 

Thomas H. Dodge, who has been an active, 
brainy, never-stand-still character, whose career, 
now well nigh spent by the coming-on of old age, 
will for generations yet to come be kindly remem- 
bered for the work he had so intelligently wrought 
out with his own brains and willing hands. While 
some men achieve great names by military fame; 
some by statesmanlike lives ; others by money-mak- 
ing traits alone, this gentleman has made for the 
world a true pattern for any young man who wishes 
to improve his time and make good use of the op- 
portunities with which he finds himself environed, 
upon his advent into the world. In this man one 
finds a study, which to fully comprehend needs to 
be re-enforced by a knowledge of his noble an- 
cestry — noble not in a sense of handed-down 
"royalty," but of that sturdy self-making, self-deny- 
ing, painstaking sort of which most truly great men 
are produced. 

Concerning the genealogy of Mr. Dodge, let it 
be said that he is of English origin, and what people 
have been felt more for their intellect and virtues 
than the Anglo-Saxon race? The Dodges have 
a history known somewhat of as far back as 
1306 A. b., when members of the family held lands 
in Stockport, England. But as the object of this 
volume is to begin with the American ancestry, 
as a rule, and trace the descendants to the present 
time, such facts as might be had concerning the 
English family will not be attempted to be repro- 
duced herein. 

In the course of researches for this family his- 
tory only two main branches have been found, one 
descended from William, or Richard, of Beverly, 
Massachusetts, and the other from Tristram Dodge, 
who settled on Block Island, Rhode Island, in 1660. 
April 25, 1629. there sailed from Gravesend. on the 
Thames, two boats — one the "Talbot," a vessel of 
three hundred tons, and the "Lion's Whelp." a 
neat ship of one hundred and twenty tons. They 
reached Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, May 8. The 
journal kept by Reverend Francis Higginson, of 
the "Talbot," has been preserved and gives clue 
to the origin of all American Dodges. That record 
says that the "Lion's Whelp" had forty planters 
from Dorchester, many mariners, eight pieces of 
ordnance, provisions, and four goats. Both vessels 
sailed from Yarmouth, May 11, 1629, and arrived 
at Salem. June 29, the same year. 

William Dodge settled in that location now called 
Beverly, but in early times known as Bass-River- 
Side, being separated from Salem by the bay. Tra- 
dition states he was tall, with black hair and a 
dark complexion. He became a freeman April 17, 



1637, and received a grant of land containing sixty 
acres in September that year. William Dodge came 
to Salem nine years earlier than Richard, hence he 
has been called the "father of American Dodges." 
The records, however, show the descendants of 
Richard outnumber his, probably on account of the 
fact that the former had but two sons, while Richard 
had five. 

Richard Dodge, brother of William (i), was 
received as an inhabitant in October, 1638, and was 
granted ten acres by the town of Salem. He was 
admitted into the church at Salem. May 5, 1644. 
In 1671 he helped to establish the First Church at 
Beverly. Richard died in June, 1671, leaving a will 
by which it appears that he left a brother Michael ; 
the will of Richard, in connection with the will 
of his father, John Dodge, renders the origin of 
Salem Dodges quite clear. Records in the register's 
oflice of Essex county also show that William Dodge, 
senior, had a nephew William Dodge (Coker Will- 
iam or William Coker), son of Michael, to whom 
by a deed dated May 12, .1685, he gave sixteen 
acres of land where now stands the Beverly reser- 
voir. On the same date he also imposed a duty 
upon his son Captain William Dodge, of Beverly, 
to "pay my brother," "if he came to New England 
and dwell in this town of Beverly, five pounds per 
annum, so long as he shall dwell here" — referring 
to his brother in England — doubtless Michael 
Sprague, then his only brother, Richard having died 
in 1671. 

The Dodges for at least four generations rarely 
engaged at anything besides farming. They wanted 
to possess and improve the soil. They were hard 
workers and seldom irreligious ; rarely office seek- 
ers, and were a temperate set of people. With the 
expansion of population they pushed forth for new 
homes, to subdue other lands, and have been found 
on the wild frontiers, through the northern states, 
and today count their descendants by the hundreds 
if not thousands all the way from New England 
to the waters of the Pacific. Men of note and 
national fame may be found here and there from 
out their ranks of workers. They are found among 
the philanthropic, military, literary, clergy, medical, 
legal and college professorships and callings — ever 
ready to do and to dare. 

To come now direct to the line of genealogy in 
this country it may be said, first, that John Dodge 
(l) and wife Margery, of Somersetshire, England, 
had these children: i. William, came to America, 
1629 ; died between 1685 and 1602. He was prob- 
ably born about 1604. 2. Richard, appeared in 
Salem. 1637: died June. 1671 : probably born 1602. 
3. Michael, lived and died in Somerset county, Eng- 
land, and had five children. 4. Mary, died in Eng- 
land and had one son — John. 

(ID William Dodge, eldest son of John (l), 
bom about 1604. came to Salem. Massachusetts, in 
162Q. A tradition was handed down by Col. Robert 
Dodge to his son Francis, of Georgetown, D. C, 
that "farmer William" came to America when about 
twenty-one years of age. to see how he liked it, 
and returned to England, telling his father that he 
had determined to settle in America, and asked 
him for some present. His father said, "get mar- 
ried and I will give it." William is said to have 
had two refusals, but finally succeeded, married, 
and for his "present" his father gave him a pair 
of bulls. "Farmer William." as he was styled, be- 
came a prominent factor in his new home in the 
New World. He was elected to many local offices 
and served in courts as juryman, helped construct 
roads, bridges, churches, and was an extensive 
farmer. In 1685 he vsold his real estate, conveying 
the homestead to his son Captain William. His 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



17 



children were: i. dipt. William, born September, 
16^0; died 1720. 2. Hannah, born 1642; married 
Samuel Porter, who died iti6o ; married Thomas 
Woodberry. Josiah Dodge, killed in the Narragan- 
sett war in 1O75, may have been another son. 

(II) Richard Dodge, son of John Dodge (i), 
the English ancestor, and a brother to William above 
named, "married in England, and had a son John, 
who died there. His wife was baptized as Edith. 
It is quite certain that Richard and wife joined the 
New England colony in 1638, and as the King 
at that time was not allowing emigration, it is 
possible that he left England without royal sanc- 
tion. He settled in "Dodge Row," North Beverly, 
where he built a house that was occupied and kept 
in the family for more than two hundred years. 
He and his wife Edith were members of the Wen- 
ham Church, but the most of his time and talent 
seems to have been spent in farm improvements, 
not paying any special attention to church work. 
His wife outlived him seven years, dying June 
27, 1678, at the age of seventy-five years. Their 
children were : John, Mary, Sarah, Richard, Samuel, 
Edward, Joseph. 

(III) Joseph Dodge, son of Richard (2), born 
in Beverly, 1651, died August 10, 1716; married 
Sarah Eaton, of Reading, 1671. He was a farmer 

_ in Beverly, near his father, on Dodge Row. He 
was one of the executors of his father's estate, re- 
ceiving a liberal joint share with his brother Ed- 
ward. The children born to Joseph and his wife 
were : Abigail, Joseph, Noah, Prudence, Abigail, 
Jonah, Sarah. Elisha, Charity, Nathaniel. 

(IV) Elisha Dodge, son of Joseph (3), born 
January, 1687, died January 17, 1755. With his 
brother Jonah he shared his father's real estate 
holdings. In his will he gave his wife Mary two 
cows, four sheep and other property, and to his 
son Elisha all real and personal estate. He left 
to his wife a negro woman, Bathsheba, who was 
to belong to his daughters Lois and Mary on the 
death of their mother. His realty was appraised 
at 380 pounds, and personal at 114 pounds. He 
married Mary Kimball, of Wenham, October, 1709, 
and the children born to them were : Jerusha, Lois, 
Elisha, Mary, Elisha. 

(V) Elisha Dodge, son of Elisha (4), born in 
Beverly, May 17, 1723, died after 1777, in New 
Boston, married, first, to Eleanor Dodge; sec- 
ondly, to Sarah Foster, of Wenham, 1748, who died 
August, 1768; and in 1769 he married Mrs. Deborah 
Lovett. He lived in Beverly until 1777, when he 
moved his family to New Boston, New Hampshire, 
where he died. His children were : Sarah, Jerusha, 
Elisha. Noah, Malachi, Abigail, Ella, Enoch, 
Mehitable, Mary. 

(VI) Enoch Douglas, son of Elisha (5), born 
May. 1762, in Beverly, died December 27, 1834, 
in Eden, Vermont; married, December 18, 1787, 
Jael Cochran, born in New Boston, New Hamp- 
shire, 1768, died at Eden, Vermont, April 6, 1844. 
They moved to New Boston in 1788. Their chil- 
dren were: i. Malachi Foster, born New Boston, 
New Hampshire, August 20. 1789. 2. Elizabeth, 
born March 28, 1792, died February 22, 1793. 3. 
Betsey, born January 17, 1794, died July 22. 1802. 
4. Enoch, born December, 1795, died Crete, Illinois, 
March 4, 1873. 5. Elisha, born February 18, 1798, 
died July, 1802. 6. Jane, born January 25, 1800, 
died February, 1844 ; married Daniel Cornish. 7. 
Nathaniel C, born May, 1802, lived at Jefferson- 
ville. Vermont. 8. Joseph, born March 31, 1804, 
died June, 1864. 9. Mary, Ijorn June 24, 1806, died 
1880. 10. Hiram, born June 25, 1808, died May 13, 
1859. II. John, born December, 1810, died March, 
1814 



(VII) Malachi F. Dodge, son of Enoch (6), 
born August 20, 1789, in New Boston, New Hamp- 
shire, died October 13, 1S65, in Nashua, New Hamp- 
shire. He married Jane Hutchins, January 9, 1812, 
at Belvidere, Vermont. They first resided in Bel- 
videre and next in Lowell, Vermont, whence they 
removed in 1837 to Nashua, New Hampshire. Their 
children were: l. Priscilla D., born ^lay 1813, died 
August 12, 1864 ; married William H. Huntley. 2. 
Malachi F., born January 8, 181 5. 3. Elisha 
C, born September 27, 1816, died February, 
1825. 4. Sarah Jane, born July 6, 1818, mar- 
ried, November 18, 1845, Frederick Plummer 
Bixby ; both deceased. 5. Daniel Darling, born June 
28, 1820, married Miss Wyman ; both deceased. 6. 
Thomas Hutchins, born September 27, 1823, mar- 
ried Eliza Daniels. 7. Abbie R., born June, 1825, 
married Rodney M. Rollins ; both deceased. 8. 
Elisha E., born November 17, 1827, married Martha 

E. Fernald ; both deceased. 9. Mary Harding, born 
November 20, 1829, married Mason Boyd ; he is 
deceased ; she resides in New Hampshire. 10. Eme- 
line A., born July^ 1832, died October 26, 1865. 

(VIII) Malachi F. Dodge, Jr., son of Malachi 

F. (7), born January 8, 1815, at Eden, Vermont, 
married. May, 1838, Charlotte A. Ober, of Hopkin- 
ton. New Hampshire, first, and after her death he 
married Hannah P. Edwards. Both are now de- 
ceased. They resided at Manchester, New Hamp- 
shire, and had following children: i. Infant son, died 
in 1841. 2. Edward O., born February, 1844; mar- 
ried Ellen L. Dearborn, deceased. 3. Thomas F., 
born October, 1846. 4. Willy H., born November, 
1851, deceased. S- James E., born March, 1854, 
resides in Manchester, New Hampshire, and al- 
though a Republican in politics has been city auditor 
for many years under the administration , of both 
parties. 6. Frank E., born September, 1863, deceased. 

(VIII) Having brought down from the English 
ancestor, the line of descendants to which our chief 
subjects belonged, it should here be stated that 
he of whom we write, Hon. Thomas H. Dodge (8), 
was born September 27, 1823, in the town of Eden, 
Lamoille county, Vermont. He is the fourth son 
of Malachi F. Dodge (7), and wife Jane Hutchins. 
Thomas H. had the early advantages of good dis- 
trict schools, as his father was a well-to-do farmer. 
The family later moved to the town of Lowell, 
Vermont, residing on a farm until he was about four- 
teen years of age, when his eldest brother secured 
a good position with a manufacturing concern at 
Nashua. New Hampshire, and the family removed 
there. Here he applied himself to his school duties 
and became a great admirer of Jiidge Edmund 
Parker, who was his Sabbath school superintendent. 
The Dodge family there were members of the Olive 
St. Congregational Church. Through the influence 
of Judge Parker, young Dodge resolved on becom- 
ing a lawyer and manufacturer. He proposed to his 
parents to bear his own expenses and thus showing 
what he could accomplish, agreeing to pay to his 
father a sum for the remainder of his time, as he 
had not yet reached his majority. He decided on 
learning the cotton manufacturing business, hence 
commenced at the bottom as a roll carrier, giving 
him a chance to understand all about the raw 
product and its preparation for spinning. All this 
time_ he was reading books on this subject. After 
earning sufficient money in the factory he entered 
Gymnasium Institute, at Pembroke, New Hamp- 
shire, where he rapidly advanced, and at the com- 
mencement delivered his first oration, "The Canadian 
Patriot's Address before his Execution." Learned 
state lawyers and jurists were present and he made 
a great impression upon all. One judge made the 
remark, "That lad has a bright and eventful future 



II 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



before him." And true it was. But little did they 
dream that within a third of a century this lad 
would stand so high as a manufacturer and in- 
ventor, as well at the forefront as an advocate and 
jurist in a special branch of law. He returned to 
the cotton mills, and in 1850 published his famous 
review of the "Rise, Progress and Importance of 
Cotton Manufactures of the United States." He was 
a close student in many branches of natural phil- 
osophy and chemistry. He was a born inventor, 
and knew to succeed he must needs be fully posted, 
hence his extra training along all mechanical lines 
occupied his time for years. Among his numerous 
inventions was his printing press, patented to him 
by the United States Patent Office, November 18, 
1851. From the use of this and other inventions he 
received a large income at a time in his career 
of research and activities when most needed to send 
him up higher. Now having the funds — the product 
of his own brains — he decided to fit himself for 
law, and in 1851 he entered the office of Hon. George 
Y. Sawyer and Col. A. F. Stevens, of Nashua, New 
Hampshire. Having given three years close study, 
he was admitted to the bar at Manchester, New 
Hampshire. In 1R54 he opened an office at Nashua. 
He was then thirty-one years of age. Aside from 
his own position as a lawyer he had gained prom- 
inence as a manufacturer and inventor of no small 
skill. By reason of these things, Hon. Charles 
Mason, then United States Commissioner of 
Patents, was attracted toward this rising genius, 
and tendered him the position in the exaiuining 
corps of the United States Patent Office. He was 
first assistant, but soon his peculiar ability and fit- 
ness caused him to be made an examiner-in-chief. 
As long as Commissioner Mason was at the head 
of the Patent Office, the advice and opinion of 
Mr. Dodge were constantly sought after. He was 
finally admitted to practice in the United States 
supreme court, and had very many large patent 
cases, some involving millions of dollars, in which 
fie was eminently successful. His clients came from 
one ocean to the other, and from the forests of 
Maine to the cotton belt of the far away South- 
land. In the forepart of 1864, Mr. Dodge took 
up a residence in Worcester. He had an office 
and was a third owner of the Union Mowing 
Machine Company, at Worcester, which plant em- 
ployed many men and made goods for all parts 
of the country. In 1881, while still in an extensive 
law practice, he in connection with Charles G. 
Washburn, organized the Barbed Fence Company, 
of Worcester, of which Mr. Dodge was president. 
This was but the commencement of what has become 
an immense barbed wire industry. In 1883 the long 
years of brain work caused a serious break in his 
usual good health, and he was cojnpelled to retire 
from the active routine of business cares to which 
he had subjected himself for so many years. 

In a work such as this, it is impossible to give 
space sufficient to give at length, even an outline, 
of all of interest connected with this man's career, 
but in closing this sketch, a brief review of some 
of the more important acts in both his private 
and public life will be noted. He started out in 
life with a high aim. He worked his own way 
through school. He invented several cotton cloth- 
making appliances by which hundreds of dollars 
were saved each month by each cotton mill. He in- 
vented a printing press in the fifties, which principle 
carried out has given the world its great continuous 
roll printing presses. He improved the manner 
of making mowing machines, whereby over a million 
men's work is saved each haying season. He dis- 
covered the safetv valve defect and has taught the 



world much about the cause of steam boiler ex- 
plosions. He was a chief examiner and chairman 
of the board of appeals in the United States Patent 
Office, being appointed by Judge Holt, chairman, 
who succeeded Judge Mason as Commissioner of 
Patents. The latter office Mr. Dodge resigned in 
the fall of 1858. Some idea of the esteem in which 
Mr. Dodge's services were held may be gained from 
the fact that the venerable editor-in-chief of the 
National Intelligencer of Washington said that no 
other public officer had ever received such a genuine 
and high tribute as that which Commissioner Holt 
bestowed upon Mr. Dodge, which was as follows: 

United States Patent Office 
November 3, 1858. 
Sir: — I liave received with emotions of unmingled sorrow your 
letter of yesterday resigning the othce of examiner, the duties of 
which you have for years discharsed with such distinguished 
honor to yourself, and advantage to the public interest. It would 
have been to me a source of high gratitication could I have enjoy- 
ed for the future that zealous support which you have so kindly 
afforded me in the past. While, however, 1 feel that your retire- 
ment will be a severe loss to the service, as it will be a personal 
affliction to myself, 1 cannot be insensible to the weight of the 
considerations w'hich have determined you to seek another and 
more attractive field of labor. 1 shall ever recall with the liveliest 
satisfaction the pleasant social and official relations which have 
marked our intercourse, and in accepting your resignation 1 beg 
to offer to you my heartfelt thanks, alike for your personal friend- 
ship and for the high, loyal and most etfective co-operation, which 
in the midst of circumstances of dithcultj- and embarrassment 3'ou 
have constantly extended to me in the adminstralion of this office. 
In whichever of the varied paths of life it may be your fortune to " 
tread, be assured that you will bear with j'ou my warmest wishes 
for your success and happiness. 

Most sincerely your friend. 

]. Holt. 
Mr. Thomas H. Dodge. 



in the United States Postal Department at Wash- 
ington, by which letters not called for, if containing 
a return card, would find their way back to the 
writer, without the long, expensive routine of going 
through the Dead Letter office. He has been an 
eminently successful patent attorney, handling in- 
tricate cases, wherein many millions of money have 
been at stake. He has been connected with vast 
mower and barb wire manufacturing industries at 
Worcester. He has given "Dodge Park" to the 
city — a gift royal in and of itself. He has, together 
with his truly estimable wife, been a faithful church 
and Sabbath school worker. They have donated 
large sums of money from time to time toward the 
building of church edifices in Worcester and other 
places, including Trinity Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and Union and Piedmont Congregational 
Churches. He has given to the Odd Fellows of 
Massachusetts the charming grounds upon which 
stands the State Odd Fellows' Home in Worcester, 
and then gave beautiful grounds adjacent known 
as Dodge Park. These were unselfish gifts, because 
he is not a member of this great order. He wrote 
a twenty page genealogy of one branch of the Dodge 
family in l88o. He was true and loyal to the Union 
cause in the dark and trying days of the civil war. 
He lived in Washington, D. C, and has home was 
ever open to those disposed to care for the sick 
and wounded soldiers. Both he and his truly good 
companion gave of their means and distributed 
delicacies of food, both in and outside the regular 
hospitals. At no time did this far-seeing man ever 
doubt the final triumph which came to the Union 
cause. Not able himself to enter the army, he 
furnished a substitute at a cost of one thousand 
dollars — a young French Canadian, who served with 
great credit, and rose to the rank of a commissioned 
officer. 

Mr. Dodge was married June 29, 1843. to Eliza 
Daniels, of Brookline, New Hampshire, and to her 
he attributes much of his success in life, as she 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



19 



has ever cheered and encouraged his undertakings. 
The deep interest they liave both taken in church 
work and the support of the same, with their in- 
terest in the Natural History Camp and the Sunmier 
schools for boys and girls, give the readers to know 
the tendencies of their minds. May 18, 1905, Mr. 
and Mrs. Dodge each donated five "hundred dollars 
to the cause. 

Mr. Dodge is a man of distinguished presence, 
dignified, yet genial. Hi? has been a life of great 
usefulness. He is noted for liberality of mind and 
kind hospitality. The warm place he holds in the 
affections of the people, in a community in which 
he has done .so much good work, and spent so large 
a portion of his useful and honorable life, is the best 
evidence of his work as a citizen whom all Massa- 
chusetts may well be proud to own. 

AUGUSTUS GEORGE BULLOCK. Richard 
Bullock, (I) the emigrant ancestor of A. George 
Bullock, of Worcester, settled in Rehoboth, Mass., 
in 1643. He was a man of some prominence in the 
town. Among other positions he held was that of 
town clerk in 1659. He married (first), August 4, 
1647, Elizabeth Ingraham, probably daughter of 
Richard Ingraham. a settler of Rehoboth ; he married 
(second) Elizabeth Billington, September 21, 1660. 
His children were: Samuel, born August 19, 1648; 
Elizabeth, October 9, 1650; Mary, February 16, 
1652 : Mehitable. April 4. 1655 ; Abigail, August 
29, 1657; Hopestill, December 26, 1659; Israel, July 
15, 1661 ; Mercy, March 13. 1662, died March 19, 
1663: John. May 19. 1664; Richard, March 15, 1666-7. 

(H) Samuel Bullock, son of Richard (l) and 
Elizabeth (Ingraham) Bullock, was born at Reho- 
both, Massachusetts, August 19, 1648. He was a 
farmer and lived at Rehoboth. His name appears 
in the list of proprietors of Rehoboth in 1689. He 
was a contributor to the fund raised for de- 
fence in King Philip's war in 1675. He married 
(first) Mary Thurber. November 12, 1673. He mar- 
ried (second) Thankful Rouse, May 26, 1675. Their 
children were: Mary, born October 4. 1674; Eben- 
ezer, Februarj' 22, 1676 ; Thankful, June 26, 1681 ; 
Samuel, November 7, 1683 ; Israel, April 9, 1687 ; 
Daniel. i68g ; Richard, July I, 1692; Seth, September 
26, 1693. 

(HI) Ebenezer Bullock, son of Samuel Bullock 
(2), was born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts. February 
22, 1676. He married Sarah Moulton, March 29, 
1698. They resided at Rehoboth. Their children 
were : Mary, born June 6, 1699 ; Mehitable, April 
I, 1701 ; Samuel, November 17, 1703 ; Hugh, April 
I, 1706; Aaron, 1707; Squier, INIarch 4, 1709; Mir- 
iam, September 30, 171 1 ; Thankful, May 23, 1714; 
Katherine. died December, 1707; James, August 21, 
1716. 

(IV) Hugh Bullock, son of Ebenezer Bullock 
(3). was born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, April 
I, 1706. He married (first) Anna Cole, 1733; (sec- 
ond) INIehitable . He resided at 

Rehoboth. His children were : James, born Decem- 
ber 17, 1734; Alethea, March 12, 1736; Ebenezer, 
June 30, 1739; Sarah, August 17, 1741 ; Moulton, 
November 5, 1743 ; Prudence, May 6, 1746 ; Hugh, 
.\ugnst 12. 17.51; Barnet (records give Barnard), 
June 20, 1773. 

(V) Hugh Bullock, son of Hugh Bullock (4) 
and Anna Cole, was born August 12, 1751, at 
Rehoboth, Massachusetts. His brother Moulton re- 
moved to Royalston, Massachusetts, before the rev- 
olution and settled there. Moulton's farm was 
owned in 1865 by Jason Fisher. Hugh went to 
Royalston during the revolution. Hugh Bullock's 
farm was north of his brother's. After his sons 



were grown up and engaged in other business he 
built a house on the common, west of his sou Bar- 
net's house. This house was occupied in 1865 by C. 
H. Newton. Hugh died in this house in 1837, at the 
age of eighty-five. His wife, Rebecca (Davis) Bul- 
lock, died 1809, aged fifty years. Hugh Bullock 
was one of the company that started for Saratoga 
to repel the invasion of Burgoyne. He was in 
Captain Peter Woodbury's company. Colonel Job 
Cushing's regiment, which reinforced General Stark 
at Bennington, Vermont The children of Hugh 
Bullock (5) were: Rufus, born September 23, 
1779; Calvin; Moulton, born 1787, died 1865; Bar- 
net, born 1798, died 1884; Candace, was living in 
Royalston 1865. 

Christopher, Ebenezer, Nathan, and David Bul- 
lock also settled in Royalston about this time. The 
history of Royalston states that they were cousins 
of Hugh and Deacon Moulton Bullock. They were 
all stalwart men. David being the tallest man in 
town. Their stay in town was short. When they 
had their places well cleared and were in the full 
vigor of manhood they went westward, following the 
tide of settlers from the Atlantic states inland after 
the revolution. 

(VI) Rufus Bullock, son of Hugh Bullock (5), 
was born at Royalston, Massachusetts, September 
23, 1779. He was perhaps the most distinguished 
man who spent his life in the town of Royalston. 
He died there January 10, 1858. With small means 
he laid the foundation of a good education and be- 
came an acceptable school teacher before he was 
of age. He taught school several winters and 
worked out at farming in the summers. He was 
clerk in the country store, and finally opened a store 
on his own account on the common. The business 
prospered and he led the life of a country merchant 
the remainder of his days, accumulating a fortune 
for his day and enjoying to a remarkable degree 
the respect and confidence of the people of the 
vicinity. Mr. Bullock made it a rule to expand 
his business as his means increased, never going 
beyond but always using fully what he had. He al- 
ways gave every detail of his varied business in- 
terests his personal supervision. He began to manu- 
facture at his mill in South Royalston, which was 
very successful. He always conducted a farm and 
took time to work in the fields himself, notwith- 
standing the demands of his store and factory. He 
seemed to find recreation in the variety of his 
interests. 

Mr. Bullock often served the town in public of- 
fice. He was town clerk in 1812 and 1813. He was 
selectman in 1811-12-13. He represented Royalston 
and his district for five years in the general court. 
He was in the state senate 1831-32. He was dele- 
gate to the constitutional conventions in 1820 and 
1852. and was once chosen a presidential elector. 
He left $5,000 in his will to the Congregational 
church, in which he always took a profound inter- 
est ; he gave $2,500 to the Baptist Society ; $2,500 
to the Second Congregational Church at South Roy- 
alston ; $5,000 to the town of Royalston for schools. 
A significant proviso of the last named bequest 
was that the town must keep the cemetery in re- 
pair or forfeit the money. The condition of the 
old graveyards of Massachusetts at times has been 
a reproach to civilization in this state. Mr. Bul- 
lock's bequest will doubtless save the graves of Roy- 
alston from desecration and neglect. Mr. Bullock 
was a trustee of Amherst College and presented 
the telescope for the observatory. 

He married, May 4, 1808, Sarah Davis, of Rindge^ 
New Hampshire. The history of Royalston says 
of her: "She still survives (1865) and lives among 



20 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



us, the same industrious and cheerful matron of the 
olden type, whose wisdom and energj' helped to 
build the house; and who is still spared to enjoy 
it, when builded, and still to attract the children 
and the children's children to the ancient home- 
stead." Of Mr. Bullock it says : "He was a pa- 
triot of the early type — a gentleman of . the olden 
school — a friend to be trusted, a man whose prin- 
ciples bore the test of intimate acquaintance and in- 
spection, and whose influence, unobtrusive but po- 
tent, has been eminently useful." Their children 
were: Maria Louisa, born October 14, 1809; Emily, 
born September 10, 1811, married W. D. Ripley, 
died May I, 1904; Rebecca, born April 28, 1814, 
married Nelson Wheeler ; Alexander Hamilton, born 
March 2, 1816, died January 17, 1882; Charles 
Augustus, born 1818, died August 25, 1882; Rufus 
Henry, born January 9, 1821. 

(VII) Alexander Hamilton Bullock, son of 
Rufus Bullock (6), was born at Royalston, Massa- 
chusetts, March 2, 1816. He entered Amherst Col- 
lege in 1832, was a diligent student and on his 
graduation, in 1836, delivered the salutatory ora- 
tion at commencement. In the catalogue of his 
contemporaries at college are found the names of 
Rev. Richard S. Storrs, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
Bishop Huntington and other famous men. After 
graduating he taught school for a short time at 
Princeton, N. J., and then partly at the wish of his 
father and partly on account of his own inclination 
entered the Harvard Law School. After leaving 
the law school he spent a year in the office of the 
well known lawyer, Emory Washburn, of Worcester, 
where he gained a good knowledge of the details of 
legal practice, and in 1841 was admitted to the bar. 
Senator Hoar said of Mr. Bullock : "He disliked 
personal controversy. While he possessed talents 
which would have rendered him a brilliant and per- 
suasive advocate, the rough contests of the court 
house could never have been congenial to him. He 
was associated with Judge Thomas as junior coun- 
sel in one important capital trial, in which he is said 
to have made an eloquent opening argument. He 
had a considerable clientage for a young man, to 
whom he was a safe and trustworthy adviser. But 
he soon established a large business as agent of im- 
portant insurance companies and withdrew himself 
altogether from the practice of law." 

From early manhood Mr. Bullock took a decided 
interest in politics. The prominence of his father 
in political circles may have increased a natural 
taste for public life. He was particularly well versed 
in constitutional law and that fact, together with 
the well defined convictions he held, gave him in 
debate and in administration great advantages. He 
was originally a Whig. Step by step he advanced 
to the highest position in the commonwealth. He 
was a member of the house of representatives for 
eight years, first in 184S, last in 1865. In 1862- 
63-64-65, during the civil war, all legislative 
positions were of extraordinary importance and in- 
volved great responsibility. He was exceedingly 
popular among his colleagues. He was a state sena- 
tor in 1849, judge of the Worcester county court 
of insolvency for two years — 1856-8, having served 
as commissioner of insolvency since 1853. He was 
mayor of Worcester in 1859. The greatest event 
of his public career was his service as governor of 
the commonwealth in 1866-67-68. At his first elec- 
tion he received nearly 50,000 votes more than his 
opponent. Governor Bullock had many opportuni- 
ties to serve in high positions in the national gov- 
ernment. Among other places that he declined was 
the mission to England offered him by President 
Hayes. 

In financial, humane and all reformatory move- 



ments Governor Bullock was active and efficient. 
He was president of the State Mutual Life Assur- 
ance Company, and of the Worcester County In- 
stitution of Savings ; director of the Worcester 
National Bank ; chairman of the finance commit- 
tee of the trustees of Amherst College, and a life 
member of the New England Historic-Genealogical 
Society. While editor and publisher of the Daily 
Aegis (now The Gazette) he displayed marked 
ability as a writer and newspaper man. He re- 
ceived the honorary degree of LL. D. from Amherst 
and Harvard Colleges. He was a great friend of 
learning, interested in all educational institutions. 

In 1869 he visited Europe with his family. Upon 
his return the following year he was received with 
a public demonstration to welcome him home and 
give evidence of the respect and love of his towns- 
men. Governor Bullock was an orator of great 
power. A volume of his addresses was published. 
Senator Hoar, who made a special study of orators, 
said of Gevernor Bullock's speeches : "Above all, 
he possessed, beyond any of his living contemporar- 
ies, that rare gift of eloquence which always has 
been and always will be a passport to the favor of 
the people where speech is free." His eulogy of 
President Lincoln in Worcester in 1865 was one 
of many notable public addresses that he delivered. 
He delivered the commemorative oration at the 
centennial of the incorporation of his native town 
of Royalston. 

Governor Bullock married, 1844, Elvira Hazard, 
daughter of Colonel A. G. Hazard, of Enfield, 
Connecticut, founder of the Hazard Gunpowder 
Manufacturing Company. Their children were: 
Augustus George, born at Enfield, Connecticut; Isa- 
bel, married Nelson S. Bartlett, of Boston ; Fanny, 
married Dr. William H. Workman, of Worcester. 

(VHI) A. George Bullock, son of the late Alex- 
ander H. (7) and Elvira (Hazard) Bullock, was born 
June 2, 1847. at Enfield, Connecticut. His life has 
been spent from infancy, however, in the city of 
Worcester. He attended the Highland Military 
Academy and graduated there in 1862. After two 
years of preparation under Professor E. .G. Cutler 
he entered college in 1864. Professor (Sutler, his 
tutor, was afterward professor of English literature 
at Harvard. In 1868 Mr. Bullock graduated at 
Harvard College. Soon afterward he began the 
study of law in the offices of the late Judge Thomas 
L. Nelson and the late Senator George F. Hoar. 
He was admitted to the bar and entered upon the 
practice of his profession. His career as a lawyer 
closed with his election to the presidency of the 
great insurance company, although a legal train- 
ing is perhaps most essential in the education of 
the executive head of such a corporation. Certainly 
Mr. Bullock's legal experience increased his effi- 
ciency and augumented his success in developing 
the business of the State Mutual Company. His 
predecessor in the presidency was Philip L. Moen, 
who completed the year to which Mr. Bullock's 
father, Alexander H. Bullock, had been elected in 
January, 1882, his death two weeks later making a 
vacancy. In the following year A. George Bullock 
was elected. New methods were introduced and the 
company grew amazingly. This company began its 
business in Worcester in 1845. Its first first presi- 
ident, John Davis, its third president, Alexander H. 
Bullock, and its vice-president, Emory Washburn, 
were at various times elected governor of the com- 
monwealth. The second president of the company, 
Isaac Davis, was almost as prominent in public af- 
fairs as his uncle who preceded him. He was 
president twenty-nine years. A vice president and 
one of the organizers was John Milton Earle, who 
was editor of The Spy for so many, years. In 




/Z^^ . A^. (f^-^^^A-o-^^iL 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



21 



recent years, under the present management, the 
business of the company has increased phenomenally. 
The company has among its assets one of the at- 
tractive office buildings of Boston and the most val- 
uable office building by far in Worcester, contain- 
ing two hundred and one offices. 

Mr. Bullock's other interests are extensive. He 
is president of the Norwich & Worcester Railroad 
Company; vice-president of the Worcester Con- 
solidated Street Railroad Company; president of 
the Worcester Railways and Investment Company; 
trustee and member of the board of investment of 
the Worcester County Institution for Savings ; di- 
rector of the Providence & Worcester Railroad 
Company; director of the Boston & Albany Rail- 
road Company ; director of the Worcester Gaslight 
Company ; director of the Worcester National Bank ; 
director of the Worcester Trust Company ; director 
of the Railways anl Lighting Company of Boston; 
director of the State Street Trust Company of Bos- 
ton ; director of the American Loan and Trust 
Company of Boston. He was a commissioner 
at large to the Columbian exposition at Chi- 
cago in 1893, appointed by the president of 
the United States. He has been chairman of 
the directors of the Public Library. He was 
formerly trustee of the State Lunatic Hos- 
pital at Worcester. He is a member of tfie Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society and of The Worcester 
Society of Antiquity. He is a member of the Tat- 
nuck Country Club, Commonwealth Club, Worcester 
Club, Harvard Club of New York, University Club 
of New York. Somerset Club of Boston and of the 
Union Club of Boston. He attends the First Uni- 
tarian church. He is a Republican. He resides in 
a handsome brownstone house at 48 Elm street, 
built by Governor Bullock. By a singular coin- 
cidence the former residence of Governor Lincoln 
is directly across Elm street. Mr. Bullock has a 
beautiful country home near Mt. Wachusett, in the 
town of Princeton. 

He married Mary Chandler, daughter of Dr. 
George and Josephine (Rose) Chandler, of Wor- 
cester, October 4, 1871. Their children, all of whom 
were born in Worcester, were : Chandler, born 
August 24, 1872 ; Alexander Hamilton, November 
7, 1875; Augustus George, Jr., April 20, 1880, died 
April 29, 1880; Rockwood Hoar, August 21, 1881. 

(IX) Chandler Bullock married, October, 1900, 
Mabel Richardson, daughter of George Richardson, 
of Worcester. Their children are : Margaret, born 
in Worcester, December 22, 1901 ; Josephine Rose, 
born June 21, 1904. He is a lawyer practicing in 
Worcester. 

(IX) Alexander Hamilton Bullock married 

Florence Armsby, widow of McClellan, 

June, 1902. His wife has a daughter Beulah 
by her first marriage. He is a lawyer practicing in 
Worcester. 

(IX) Rockwood Hoar Bullock married Eliza- 
beth Bliss Dewey, daughter of Francis H. Dewey, 
of Worcester, June 8, 1905. 

Barnet Bullock was the fifth generation from 
Richard Bullock, the emigrant ancestor. He was 
born in the west part of Royalston, June 9, 1798, 
and during his active life followed the business of 
a merchant in that town. He held for a long time 
the commission of justice of the peace, doing most 
of the public business in that line in the town for 
many years, besides filling various responsible town 
offices. He was town clerk from 1837 to 1847; 
selectman. 1840, 1844 and 1845, and representative 
■to the general court in 1843 and 1844. One of the 
oldest and most prominent citizens of Royalston, 
he died September i, 1884, being the last survivor 
of the four sons of Hugh Bullock, who came from 



Rehoboth and settled in Royalston during the revolu- 
tion. He married, November 27, 1828, Lucy New- 
ton, daughter of Nathan Brigham Newton. Their 
children were Calvin, born September 21, 1829. died 
March 5, 1870; Brigham Newton, born April 6, 
1831, died February 20, 1906; Barnet Ellis, born 
jyiarch 22, 1833 ; Lucy Lee, born May 25, 1835, died 
September 18, 1882 ; Elizabeth Candace, born Octo- 
ber 16, 1838, died March 24, 1843; (Zharles Stuart, 
born January 20, 1841 ; James Frederick, born July 
21, 1842, died May 28, 1870; Mary Elizabeth, born 
December 18, 1847, died March 21, 1869. 

Brigham Newton Bullock was the second son of 
Barnet Bullock, and was born in Royalston, April 6, 
1831. He spent his early life in his native town, 
where he attended the common schools. February 
24, 1847, at the age of sixteen, he started out in 
life by entering the employment of Joseph Esta- 
brook, who kept a country store and the postoffice. 
He remained with Mr. Estabrook until the fall 
of 1851, when for a short time he attended the 
fall term of the high school, kept by Crandall Bros. 
On October 20 of the same year he left Royals- 
ton and the high school to enter the passenger de- 
partment of the office of the Vermont & Massa- 
chusetts Railroad in Fitchljurg, where he remained 
until January, 1874. He then went to Boston, where 
he was cashier of the Boston, Hartford & Erie 
Railroad from March, 1874, until August, 1874- 
From there he went to the Home Savings Bank, 
Boston, August 6, 1874, as treasurer, and remained 
until February 27, 1882, when he returned to Fitch- 
burg and entered the Fitchburg National Bank as 
cashier, holding that office until he was made presi- 
dent in 1888, and as an active working president he 
served the bank for the remainder of his life. Under 
his administration its affairs were conducted with 
great success, and its resources largely increased. 

His acknowledged ability as a financier led the 
trustees of the Fitchburg Savings Bank to secure 
his services as treasurer, when a vacancy occurred 
in that office in July, 1894, and he remained treas- 
urer, to their great satisfaction, until the law- 
separating national and savings banks went into 
effect in 1904, when he was chosen chairman of the 
board of investment, and in that capacity was able 
to give to the bank the benefit of his valuable over- 
sight and experience while he lived. In addition 
to the responsibilities of the conduct of these two 
large financial institutions, to which he gave most 
of his time and attention, he served as a director 
in the Fitchburg Railroad Company, in the Fitch- 
burg Mutual Fire Insurance Company, in the Grant 
Yarn Company, and in the Simonds Manufacturing 
Company of Fitchburg. He was a member of the 
First (Unitarian) Parish. 

Mr. Bullock was not only a successful financier, 
but a man of sterling character, and to all the re- 
sponsibilities which he assumed he honestly and 
faithfully devoted himself. His "word was as good 
as his bond." He would have nothing superficial. 
The whole structure of every institution which he 
managed must be thoroughly sound and strong from 
its very foundation ; and so he left them. Not only 
was he a strong, practical man of business, firm in 
his convictions, and just in all his dealings, but he 
also had a heart sensitive to all needs of humanity 
and the beautiful in art and nature. He was a 
devoted husband and father, and a faithful friend 
and a genial companion to all who enjoyed his 
intimate acquaintance. He always retained his af- 
fection for his native town of Royalston, and spent 
a portion of each sumrner in that beautiful hill 
town of Massachusetts. He was of the best product 
of the New England country town. 

Brigham N. Bullock married, November 13, 1888, 



22 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Flora Belle Ripley, of Fitchburg. She survives her 
husband, who died in Boston, February 20, igo6. 
Their only child is Richard Bullock, born May 3, 
1892. 

THE GREEN FAl^IILY. (I) Thomas Green 
was the ancestor of the Green family of Worcester, 
to which belong Samuel Swett Green, librarian of 
the Free Public Library ; Martin Green, a civil 
engineer and contractor; and James Green, a lawyer, 
of Worcester; Oliver Bourne Green, a civil engineer 
and contractor, of Chicago ; Dr. John Green and 
Dr. John Green, Jr., both oculists, of St. Louis ; 
the late Andrew Haswell Green, "Father of Greater 
New York ;" and many others, both of the sur- 
name of Green and of other surnames. 

Thomas Green was born in England in about 
the year 1600, according to a deposition which he 
made August 16, 1662. A Thomas Green, who prob- 
ably was his son, came over to Massachusetts, at 
the age of fifteen, in the "Planter," which sailed 
from England April 2, 1635. The same name and 
age appear also in the "Hopewell," which sailed 
the next day, and are believed to represent the same 
Thomas Green. Jr. Preceding the list of passen- 
gers in the "Planter," is a certificate which states 
that Thomas Green came from St. Albans, Hertford- 
shire. It seems likely that Thomas Green, senior, 
came to New England at the same time, or a 
little earlier, and settled at Lynn and Ipswich. He 
was living at Lady Moody's farm at Lynn about 
1646. The Green "Genealogical Sketch." which was 
published before some of these facts were dis- 
covered in the records, states that he probably 
removed from Ipswich to Maiden in 1649 or 1650. 
He was certainly in Maiden, October 28, 1651, when 
his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Elizabeth signed 
a petition to the general court. He had a farm of 
sixty-three acres in the northern part of Maiden. 
He was one of the leading citizens, serving re- 
peatedly on the grand jury, and in 1658 as a select- 
man of Maiden. 

When the "Genealogical Sketch of the Descend- 
ants of Thomas Green (e) of Maiden, Mass.. by 
Samuel S. Green of Providence, R. I.," was written, 
there were "reasons for supposing that Thomas 
Green, senior, came from Leicestershire, but no 
proofs of the fact." If the suggestion that Thomas 
Green who came over in the "Planter" was his 
son, is well grounded, the home of the family would 
seem to have been at St. Albans. 

The first wife of Thomas Green, senior, Eliza- 
beth, whom he married in England, was the mother 
of all his children. She died August 22. 1658. He 
married secondly. Frances Cook, September 5. 1659. 
She was born in 160S. married first to Isaac Wheeler, 
secondly to Richard Cook, who died Octobtr 14, 
1658. She had children by the first two husbands; 
none by the third. Thomas Green. Thomas Green 
(I) died December 19, 1667. His will, dated No- 
vember 12. 1667, was proved January 15, 1667-8. 
In it he mentions five sons, five daughters and his 
wife. The homestead was situate in that part of 
Maiden which is now included in Melrose and 
Wakefield. The children of Thomas and Elizabeth 
Green were : 

1. Elizabeth, born about 1628. 

2. Thomas, born in 1620 (if it is true, as the 
ship-record? sav. that he was fifteen years old 
when he sailed [in 1635.] : but ages in these lists of 
emigrant? are not to be relied onV He married 
Rebecca Hills, 1653. [See his sketch later, "Thomas 
(H)"! 

3. John, born in England about 1632, according 
to the Genealogy ; married to Sarah Wheeler, De- 



cember iS, 1660. (Church records give birth of 
John, son of Thomas, Sr., January 25, 1658). 

4. i\Iary, born in England about 1633 ; married 
before 1656 to Capt. John Waite, who was select- 
man seven years, and representative to the general 
court, 1666 to 1684. 

5. William, born about 1635 ; married first to 
Elizabeth Wheeler ; married secondly to Isabel 
(Farmer) Blood. 

6. Henry, born 1638; married January 11, 1671-2. 

7. Samuel, born March, 1645 ; married first, 
1666, to Mary Cook ; secondly, to Susanna . 

8. Hannah, born 1647; married November 5, 
1666, to Joseph Richardson, of Woburn, Mass. She 
died May 20, 1721. 

9. Martha, born 1650. 

10. Dorcas, born in Maiden, May I, 1653 : mar- 
ried January 11. 1671-2, to James Barrett of Maiden, 
who was born April 6, 1644. She died 1682; he died 
1694. 

(II) Thomas Green, son of Thomas Green (i), 
was born in England 1620, — if the record of the list 
of passengers of the ship "Planter" which sailed 
April 2, 1635, or the "Hopewell," which sailed the 
next day, is correct. He claimed to be fifteen years 
old then. He married in 1653. or before, Rebecca 
Hills, dayghter of Joseph Hills, of Maiden, later 
of Newbury, Massachusetts. (See sketch Joseph 
Hills family in this work.) Rebecca's mother was 
Rose Dunster. a sister of Rev. Henry Dunster, first 
president of Harvard College. Thomas Green (2) 
settled in Maiden. He was a farmer, was admitted 
a freeman. May 31, 1670, and died February 13, 
1671-2. His will was dated the same day, and 
proved April 2, 1672. His widow. Rebecca, died 
June 6. 1674. The inventory of her estate was 
filed March 4, 1674-5, by her son-in-law, Thomas 
Newell. The children of Thomas and Rebecca 
Green were : 

1. Rebecca, born 1654; married to Thomas 
Newell, of Lynn, 1674. 

2. Thomas, born February, 1655-6 ; died April 

15. 1674. 

3. Hannah, born October 16, 165S; died March 
25, 1659. 

4. Hannah, born February 24, 1659-60; married 
August 26, 1677. to John Vinton, of Maiden, and 
later of Woburn, Massachusetts. 

5. Samuel, born October 5, 1670 ; married to 
Elizabeth LTpham, about 1692. 

(III) Captain Samuel Green, the only son of 
Thomas (2) and. Rebecca Hills Green who came 
to full age. was born October s, 1670. He was one 
of the principal men in Leicester or Strawberry 
Hill, where he settled in 1717. The tow-n was 
granted February 10, 171,3-14, and Capt. Samuel 
Green was on the committee with Col. William Dud- 
ley of Roxbury and others to settle it. He owned 
three lots of forty acres each, and two of thirty each, 
in the town of Leicester, and was highly respected 
and very influential. The vicinity of his old home- 
stead, now a village, is called after him, Green- 
ville. He built a house, grist mill and saw- mill. 
At the first town meeting of w-hich there is any 
record, he was elected moderator, first selectman 
and grand juror, and he held like offices in the town 
of Leicester the remainder of his life. Governor 
Washburn, in his history, calls him a prominent man, 
and he is honored a? one of the pioneers. He also 
owned land in Hardwick, Massachusetts. He was 
always called Captain, a rank he won at Maiden, 
and he was the first captain of the Leicester com- 
pany of militia. Capt. Samuel Green married Eliza- ' 
beth, daughter of Lieut. Phineha? Upham. of Wor- 
cester, a son of Deacon John Upham, who had ar- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



23 



rived from England, September 2. 163S, settled at 
Weymouth, Massachusetts, moved to Maiden about 
1650, and was one of the original proprietors of 
Quinsigamond. His son Phinehas Upham settled 
in Worcester in April, 1675. After the Indians had 
destroyed the first white settlements at Mendon, 
Brookfield and Worcester, Lieut. Upham fought 
bravely in the battle of Narraganset Fort, Decem- 
ber 19. 1675, where he w^as mortally wounded. Capt. 
Samuel Green died January 2, 1735-6- His will was 
made at :\lalden just before he came to Leicester 
to settle. April 18. 1717, and it' was proved Febru- 
ary 5, 1735-6- His wife died at Leicester, prob- 
ably in 1761. Their children were : 

1. Elizabeth, born April 4, 1693, married to 
Thomas Richardson of Maiden. 

2. Rebecca, born April 4. 1695, married to Samuel 
Baldwin. (According to Maiden records the first 
two were twins, born April 4, 1695). 

3. Ruth, married to Joshua Nichols. 

4. Thomas, horn 1699. married to Martha Lynde 
in Maiden, January 13, 1725-6. 

5. Lydia, married to her cousin, Abiathar Vin- 
ton of Aialden, April 30, 1723. He resided in Brain- 
tree a year or two after his marriage, then settled 
in Leicester, where he lived until his death in 1740. 
His widow Lydia married secondly, January 13, 
1746. Samuel Stower, of Leicester, a native of 
Maiden. 

6. Bathsheba. married to Elisha Nevins. 

7. Abigail, married to Henry King. 

8. Any (Anna?), married to Ebenezer Lamb. 
(IV) Dr. Thomas Green, son of Capt. Samuel 

Green (3), w-as born in Maiden in 1699. He mar- 
ried. January 13, 1725-6. Martha Lynde, daughter 
of Capt. John Lynde by his third wife, Judith Worth, 
widow of Joses Bucknam of Maiden. Martha Lynde 
was born July 6. 1700. Before Capt. Samuel Green 
removed his family to Leicester, in 1717, he and his 
son Thomas had driven some cattle from Maiden to 
the site of their new home, preparatory to moving 
the family. Thomas was left at Leicester in charge 
of the cattle, while his father returned to Maiden. 
While there alone the boy was attacked with fever 
and became very ill. In his weak state he lay in 
a sort of cave made by an overhanging rock on a 
little stream, and secured food by milking a cow 
which he induced to come to him frequently by 
tying her calf to a tree near the cave. At length 
two of his former neighbors at Maiden, who had 
come on horseback to look after their cattle, found 
him. but refused to take him home. They notified 
his father, however, who went at once to his relief. 
and got him home on horseback after a painful 
journey of four days. 

Thomas Green's attention was early turned to 
the studv of medicine. His impluse in this direction 
is said to have come from two English ship-sur- 
geons — it is even .said they were pardoned buc- 
caneers. — who lived in his father's house at Leicester, 
taught young Thomas with interest and lent him 
medical books. He grew to be friendly with the 
Indians and learned from them the curative proper- 
ties of native herbs. As the settlement grew his 
medical practice extended over a wider field and 
even into Rhode Island and Connecticut. Many 
ypung men came to him for instruction in medi- 
cine : he is said to have taught one hundred and 
twenty-three medical students. The very slight facts 
which have come down to us about Dr. Thomas 
Green's study and practice of medicine show him 
to have been the most prominent practitioner of the 
country doctors of his time ; but these facts are 
especiallv interesting because he was the first of 
a long line of famous physicians and surgeons. His 



son, grandson and great-grandson, each named John 
Green, were each of them the most distinguished 
physician in Worcester county ; while Dr. John 
Green of St. Louis, the descendant of Thomas in the 
ne.xt generation, is now the foremost eye-surgeon 
in the Mississippi Valley ; and his son Dr. John 
Green, Jr., also of St. Louis, is already a prominent 
and successful practitioner in the same specialty 
of medicine. Five generations of Dr. John Greens 
go back to Dr. Thomas Green as their progenitor 
and their forerunner in the noble art of improving 
the health of man. 

Dr. Thomas Green (4) joined the First Baptist 
Church at Boston, November 7, 1731. But in 1735 
he was dismissed from that church to take part 
in forming another church at Sutton, the parent- 
church of his denomination in Worcester county, 
and the fourth Baptist church in the Province of 
Massachusetts Bay. On September 28, 1737, he and 
Benjamin Marsh were ordained as pastors of this 
Sutton church. One year later to a day, the Leices- 
ter families of the congregation erected a church of 
their own at Greenville (in Leicester), the eighth 
Baptist church in Massachusetts, and Dr. Thomas 
Green, who was a charter member of both the Sutton 
and the Leicester church, was chosen the first pastor 
of the new church, and he remained its pastor for 
almost thirty-five years. In a historical discourse 
delivered at the Greenville church in 1888, on the 
150th anniversary of its foundation, the Rev. Hiram 
C. Estes, D. D., its pastor, says of the church- 
building, "that Dr. Green was the principal pro- 
prietor of the house; that its grounds were given 
by him, and its frame was raised and covered at his 
expense." "While he was preaching on Sunday," 
said Hon. Andrew H. Green on the same anni- 
versary, "at his home across the way the pot was 
kept boiling to supply the needed sustenance to the 
little flock which came from all directions to attend 
upon his ministrations." During his ministry in 
Leicester, he baptized more than a thousand per- 
sons. In "Rippon's Register" he is spoken of as 
"eminent for his useful labors in the gospel min- 
istry." His preaching was not confined to his 
own parish ; he was widely known as Elder Green. 
In 1756. Rev. Isaac Backus, the Baptist Annalist in 
New England, held a meeting with Mr. Green's 
church, and made the following entry in his diary : 
"I can but admire how the Doctor (Thomas Green) 
is able to get along as he does, having a great deal 
of farming business to mana,ge, multitudes of sick 
to care for. several opportunities to instruct in the 
art of physic, and a church to care for and watch 
over; yet in the midst of all he seems to keep re- 
ligion uppermost — to hold his mind bent upon divine 
things — and to be very bold in Christian conver- 
sation with all sorts of people." Dr. Estes said, 
in his discourse above quoted, that "Dr. Green lived 
three lives and did the work of three men in 
one. He was a man of business, active, energetic 
and successful. * * * He was also a noted phy- 
sician ; * * * 2Lnd was a preacher of the gospel 
riuite as eminent in this as in his other spheres of 
life." 

Dr. Green's homestead was next beyond the 
river from the Baptist Church on the road to 
Charlton, where his grandson, Samuel Green, after- 
wards kept a tavern. He died August 19, 1773, at 
the age of seventy-four years. His wife Martha 
died June 20. 17S0. They were buried in the church- 
yard at Greenville, but their remains were removed 
to the Rural Cemetery in Worcester, by Dr. John 
Green (7). a descendant, where the graves are suit- 
ably marked. The children of Thomas and Martha 
Green were : 



24 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



r. Samuel, born in Leicester 1726; married to 
Zerviah Dana; married secondly to Widow Fish. 

2. Martha, born at Leicester April 23, 1727, 
married about 1753 to Robert Craig (born Decem- 
ber 10, 1726; he died October 13, 1805); she died 
September 17. 1801 ; Craig studied medicine under 
Dr. Thomas Green, but returned to the manufacture 
of spinning wheels instead of practicing; they had 
nine children. 

. 3. Isaac, married to Sarah Howe. 

4. Thomas L., born 1733, married to Hannah 
Fox; married secondly to Anna Hovey. 

5. John, born in Leicester August 14, 1736, mar- 
ried to Mary Osgood, and secondly to Mary 
Ruggles. 

6. Solomon, married to Elizabeth Page. 

7. Elizabeth, married first, to Daniel Hovey; 
married secondly, January 16, 1776. to Rev. Benja- 
min Foster (Yale 1774; Brown DD. 1792), who 
succeeded Rev. Thomas Green as pastor of the 
Baptist church at Leicester; removed to Newport, 
Rhode Island, thtnce to Gold Street Church, New 
York city, where he died of yellow fever in 1798. 

"Dr. Thomas Green," says Samuel S. Green in 
his biography of the late Andrew H. Green, "bought 
the 'homestead in Worcester which forms the nucleus 
of the extensive and beautifully situated estate on 
Green Hill, lately owned by Andrew H. Green. 
This is one of the finest gentlemen's places in that 
neighborhood, contains over five hundred acres of 
field and forest and water, and has lately become a 
part of the park system of the City of Worcester. 
The deed was given by Thomas Adams to Thomas 
Green of Leicester, dated May 28, 1754, in con- 
sideration of 330 pounds." His son John appears 
to have married and gone to Green Hill to live, 
about the year 1757. when he came of age. The 
tradition of the family is that Thomas located his 
son on this hill remote from Worcester village that 
he might be protected by distance from the tempta- 
tions of the town. At Dr. Thomas Green's death, 
August 19. 1773, his entire estate passing through 
the probate office was appraised at 4,495 pounds, 
equivalent very nearly to $22,477 ; an estate said 
to have been larger than any that had been entered 
at the probate office in Worcester previous to his 
death. 

(V") Dr. John Green, fifth child of Dr. and 
Rev. Thomas Green (4), was born in Leicester, 
Massachusetts. August 14. 1736. He married first, 
Mary Osgood, of Worcester, apparently just as he 
came of age, in 1757. She was born August 31, 
1740, and died September J, 1761. He married 
secondly, apparently in 1762, Mary Ruggles, daugh- 
ter of Brig. Gen. Timothy Ruggles, of Sandwich, 
afterwards of Hardwick, Massachusetts. Mary was 
born in Sandwich, on Cape Cod, in 1740, and died 
in Worcester, June 16, 1814, aged seventy-four 
years. 

Dr. John Green studied medicine with his father, 
in company with many other students. On coming 
of age. he moved to Worcester and built his house 
upon the eminence at the north end of Worcester 
which came to be known as Green Hill. Here he 
lived for his whole life. He was very successful 
from the first. He adopted the practice of watch- 
ing over his natients like a nurse, day and night, 
if required. He became even more famous as a phy- 
sician and surgeon than his distinguished father. 
His son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great- 
grandson, all of the same name and title of Dr. 
John Green, have also attained unusual eminence 
in the same profession. No better evidence of in- 
herited aptitude and skill in medicine and surgery 
could be shown. Dr. John Green instructed many 



students, as his father had done. At first he had 
his office at the house on Green Hill, but later in 
a small wooden structure on Main street, on the 
original site of the Five Cent Savings Bank build- 
ing. At that time there were but seven houses on 
Main street between the Common and Lincoln 
Square. William Lincoln, in his "History of Wor- 
cester," writing in 1836, says : "Tradition bears 
ample though very general testimony to his worth. 
Fortunate adaptation of natural capacity to pro- 
fessional pursuits gave an extensive circuit of em- 
ployment and high reputation. Habits of accurate 
observation, the action of vigorous intellect, and 
the results of experience, seem to have supplied 
the place of that learning deriving its acquirements 
from the deductions of others through the medium 
of books. Enjoying great esteem for skill and fidel- 
ity, hospitality and benevolence secured personal .re- 
gard." Dr. Samuel B. Woodward writes of Dr. 
Green: "An earnest patriot, he was in 1773 a mem- 
ber (and the only medical member) of the American 
Political Society, which was formed 'on account 
of the grievous burdens of the times,' and did so 
much to bring about that change of public senti- 
ment which expelled the adherents of the Crown. 
He took a prominent part in all the Revolutionary 
proceedings, and in 1777 was sent as representative 
to the general court. In 1778 and 1779 he was 
town treasurer and in 1780 one of the selectmen, 
the only physician who ever held that office" in 
Worcester. 

The father of Dr. Green's second wife. Gen. 
Timothy Ruggles, of Hardwick, was a distinguished 
lawyer, judge, statesman and soldier. He was op- 
posed, however, to the Revolution, and is called by 
historians "Massachusetts' great loyalist." Hon. 
Andrew H. Green of New York, a descendant, had 
a biography of Gen. Ruggles published. 

Dr. John Green died in Worcester, October 29, 
1799, at the age of sixty-three. All his children were 
born on Green Hill, Worcester; the first three be- 
ing the children of Mary Osgood. Thomas's first 
wife, and the last ten being the children of Mary 
Ruggles, his second wife : 

1. John, born April I, 1758; died September 20, 
1761. 

2. Mary, born November 27, 1759; died Febru- 
rary 15, 1739-60. 

3. Thomas, born January 3, 1761 ; married 
October 8, 1782, to Salome Barstow of Sutton. 

4. John, born March 18, 1763, married to Nancy 
Barber of Worcester. [See sketch of his life 
later.] 

5. Timo'.hy, born January g, 1765; married to 
Mary Martin of Providence, Rhode Island. 

6. Samuel, born May 10, 1767: married to 

Widow Tillinghast; married secondly, to 

Waring. 

7. Elijah Dix, born July 4. 1769: never mar- 
ried: he was a graduate of Brown, 1702: practiced 
medicine at Charleston, South Carolina ; died Sep- 
tember 21, 1795. 

8. Mary, born April 30, 1772 : never married ; 
she died at the house of her brother, Samuel, in 
Columbia. South Carolina. September 24, 1S24. 

9. Elizabeth, born July 31, 1774; unmarried; 
"she died at Green Hill, February 3, 1854. aged 
eighty: lived chieflv with her brother Timothy, in 
New York city. 

10. William Elijah, born January 31, 1777. [See 
his sketch, later.] 

11. Meltiah, born July 28, 1779; died unmar- 
ried. December, iSoq. of yellow fever, at St. Bar- 
tholomew. West Indies : was a resident of Jamaica. 

12. Bourne, born December 15, 1781 : died un- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



25 



married. August, 1806, at sea ; was engaged in 
commerce. 

13. Isaac, born September 4, 1784; died Sep- 
tember 9, 1807, while a member of the Sophomore 
class of Columbia College, New York. 

(VI) Dr. John Green, son of Dr. John Green 
(S) and Mary (Ruggles) Green, was born at Wor- 
cester, on Green Hill, March 18, 1763. He studied 
medicine with his father and began to practice at 
the age of eighteen. He inherited the skill and 
ability of his father and grandfather. Particularly 
skilled in surgery, his services were in constant de- 
mand, "while daily could be seen," says Charles 
Tappan, "Dr. Green and his half-dozen students 
mounted on horesback and galloping through the 
streets as if some one or more were in peril." 
He lived at first in the little wooden office-building 
of his father on Main street. Later he built a house 
just south of it. He was, we are told by the "Gen- 
ealogy," "of industrious habits, patient, persever- 
ing; in his manners, urbane and obliging; in his 
judgments, discriminating, and always reliable ; a 
man of great powers of observation ; he had an ex- 
tensive practice in Worcester and the surrounding 
region. He combined with accurate practice as a 
physician, rare skill as a surgeon." Hon. Oliver 
Fiske. his biographer, said of him : "From his 
childhood the natural bias of his mind led him 
to that profession which through life was the sole 
object of his ardent pursuit. To be distinguished 
as a physician was not his chief incentive. To 
assuage the sufferings of humanity by his skill 
was the higher motive of his benevolent mind. 
Every duty was performed with delicacy and tender- 
ness. With these propensities, aided by a strong, 
inquisitive and discriminating mind, he attained to 
a pre-eminent rank among the physicians and sur- 
geons of our country." He was tall' strong and 
attractive in person. He died August 11. 1808, at 
the age of forty-five years, having practiced, how- 
ever, for twenty-seven years, for the last nine of 
which he was practically the only physician in the 
town. The Worcester Spy reported that "To his 
funeral came the largest concourse of people from 
this and neighboring towns ever known to be col- 
lected here on a similar occasion." "It has been the 
high privilege of few of our community to enjoy 
so much confidence and respect, to be so loved while 
living and so mourned when dead." 

He married Nancy Barber, granddaughter of 
Robert Barber of Northville, who was among the 
Presbyterians who fled from the religious perse- 
cutions in his native land and sought refuge in Ire- 
land, whence he came to America, and made the 
Barber estate near Barber's Crossing, in North- 
ville, Massachusetts. The children were : 

1. John, born April 19, 1784; married to Dolly 
Curtis of Worcester. They had no children. [See 
sketch of his life later.] 

2. Eunice, born .\pril 2Q. 1786: married to 
Leonard Burbank. CBrown. 1807). They had four 
children: _ i. John Green, graduated at West Point, 
first in his class. He served in the Seminole and 
Mexican wars, and was killed in the battle of Molino 
del Rev. where he had voluntered upon a forlorn 
hope. He was never married, but was engaged to 
Anna M., daughter of Gen. Belknap, of the Regular 
Army, a contemporary of Gen. Scott. 2. .'\nn Eliza- 
beth, married to Joseph Gardner, of Fitchburg. 
They had one child. Elizabeth, who lived and died 
in Fitchburg unmarried. Ann Elizabeth is now 
dead. 3. George G.. married to Lydia O. Whiting, 
of Worcester. No child was born "to them, but they 
adopted one under the name of Caroline Amelia 
Burbank. George and Lydia are dead. 4. James Leon- 



ard, married to Persis S. Wood, of Grafton. They 
had one child only, Emma Jourdan. James L. is 
now dead. Emma J. married Frank Richard 
Macullar, of Worcester, son of Addison Macullar. 
They had one child, Margaret Burbank, now living. 
Frank R. Macullar is now dead. 

3. Mary, born March 14, 1788; died unmarried, 
September 16, 1817. 

4. Nancy, born August 28, 1790 ; married to 
Dr. Benjamin F. Heywood of Worcester, (Dart- 
mouth, 1812). [See the sketch of the Heywood 
Family, later.] 

5. Samuel, born ^March 21, 1792; died August 
24, 1796. 

6. Sarah, born August 22, 1794; died August 
23, 1796. 

7. Samuel B., born April 11, 1797; died July 
20, 1822. 

8. Frederick William, born Januarj' 19. 1800 ; 
he settled in Columbia, South Carolina : married 
Sarah Briggs of Columbia; they had thirteen chil- 
dren and are both dead. 

9. James, born December 23, 1802 ; he married 
Elizabeth Swett of Dedham. [See his sketch, later, 
"James Green (VII)."] 

10. Meltiah Bourne, born July 16, 1806 ; he 
married Marv Stone AVard. [See his sketch, later, 
"M. B. Green (VII)."] 

11. Elizabeth R.. born September 26, 1808; she 
married Dr. Benjamin F. Heywood, who had also 
married her sister Nancy. [See Heywood Family 
sketch.] 

(VI) William Elijah Green, son of Dr. John 
and Mary (Ruggles) Green, (5), was born on Green 
Hill, January 31, 1777, and died there July 27, 1865, 
aged eighty-eight years. He was graduated at 
Brown University in 1798. He succeeded his father 
in the ownership of the homestead on Green Hill, 
comprising then two hundred acres. He studied 
law under Judge Edward Bangs, with whom and 
with whose son, Edward D. Bangs, he was as- 
sociated in practice for some years afterwards. He 
w^as an original member of the First Baptist Society 
of Worcester, but late in life became identified 
with the Universalists. He will be remembered for 
the earnest work he did for temperance and the 
Public schools of Worcester. He was for many 
years captain of the Worcester Light Infantry, and 
was a volunteer in the War of 1812. He was one 
of the foremost promoters of the Blackstone Canal, 
and never lost an opportunity to help advance the 
interests of his native town. It has been said of 
bini that he was a man of great geniality and cheer- 
fulness; affable to men of all conditions, I;ighly 
respected and very popular. In his later years. Wil- 
liam E. Green withdrew from the practice of the 
law and spent his time in the development of his 
estate on Green Hill. While this estate has been 
brought to its present perfection by his sons, An- 
drew H. Green and Martin Green — the latter one 
of whom resided there for thirty-two vears. — Green 
Hill has been for one hundred and fifty years an 
attractive spot, a gentleman's estate, suggesting the 
old English homes rather than the farms of New- 
England. The original house, to which Andrew 
H. Green added a fine modern structure by cutting 
the old house in two and putting a new section be- 
tween the front and rear, is approached bj' Green 
Lane, an old county road. It had a museum of 
familv heirlooms and relics. In itself it is one of 
the choicest inheritances of the early settlers of 
Worcester. What is called the Green Hill Book 
originated Sentember 15, 1861. when the ten chil- 
dren of William E. Green, the old "Squire." met 
together for the first time since their childhood, 



26 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



and this meeting proved also the last gathering of 
the family as a whole. At that time Oliver B. 
Green came from Chicago ; John P. Green was at 
home on a visit from Copiapo, Chili, where he lived 
forty years ; Mary R., Lucy M. and Andrew H. 
came from New York ; and Martin from Peshtigo, 
Wisconsin. Some interesting portrait groups of the 
family were taken and are preserved in the Green 
Hill Book, a large folio record book, in which an 
account of this reunion was entered, and in which 
records of interest to the family, including notices 
of visits, have since been kept. It is illustrated 
with photographs of several generations of the 
family ; has clippings from newspapers containing 
obituaries and other family items. 

Mr. Green died July 27, 1865, in the same room 
at Green Hill in which he was born, — at the age 
of eighty-eight years. He was married four times ; 
first to Abigail Nelson, daughter of Josiah Nelson, 
of Milford, who bore him one child, William Nel- 
son Green ; secondly, to Lucy Merriam, daughter 
of Deacon Joseph Merriam of Grafton, who bore 
hitn one child, Lucy Merriam Green ; thirdly, to 
Julia Plimpton, daughter of Oliver PUmpton. Esq., 
of that part of Sturbridge now known as South- 
bridge. Massachusetts. She had nine children ; and 
fourthly, to Elizabeth D. Collins, a widow. From 
this marriage there was no child. The children of 
William E. Green were : 

1. William Nelson, born at Milford, Massa- 
chusetts, February 23, 1804; died December 6, 1870. 
He was judge of the police court of Worcester. 
[See his sketch, later.] 

2. Lucy Merriam, born at Grafton, November 
12, 1810. She was for a great many years the joint 
owner with her sister. Mary Ruggles Green, of a 
young ladies' school at No. I Fifth avenue. New 
York city, which they made famous : unmarried ; 
her brother, Andrew H. Green, a bachelor, lived 
with these two sisters and helped them conduct their 
business affairs ; she died May 8. 1893, at Worcester. 

3. Mary Ruggles, born in Worcester. June 29, 
l8l4;_she married Carl W. Knudsen. who was born 
in Denmark. 1818, and died in South Norwalk, 
Connecticut, February 27, 1894. She was a teacher 
and joint proprietor with her sister. Lucy M.. of 
the youn.g ladies' school at No. I Fifth avenue, New 
York city. She died March 17, 1894. 

4. Julia Elizabeth, born in Worcester, February 
2, t8i6 ; she lived at home with her parents ; was a 
teacher : never married, and died August 5, 1880. 

5. Lydia Plimpton, born at Worcester, August 
4, 1817 ; died August 27, 1818. 

6. .John Plimpton, born in Worcester, January 
19. 1S19; he became a physician, practiced in New 
York and lived in China and South America. He 
died . 

7. Andrew Haswtll, born in Worcester. October 
6. 1S20; a prominent lawyer in New York city, 
associated in practice with Hon. Samuel J. Tilden ; 
president of the Board of Education; commissioner 
of Central Park, and comptroller of New York city. 
[See a sketch of his life later, — "A. H. Green 

(vn)."i 

8. Samuel Fiske, born in Worcester, October 
10, 1822; a physician and missionary in Ceylon. 

9. Lydia Plimpton, born at Worcester. March 
18. 1S24: she lived at the old home on Green Hill, 
and died there September 7. 1869. 

10. Oliver Bourne, born at Worcester, January 
I, 1826: he married August 28, 1855. Louisa Pome- 
roy of Stanstead, Canada ; a prominent civil engineer 
at Chicago. Illinois. [See a sketch of his life, later, 
— "O. B. Green (VII)."] 

11. Martin, born at Worcester, April 24, 1828; 



for many years a civil engineer engaged in import- 
ant work; now resident at Worcester. [See a sketch 
of his life, later,— "Martin Green (VII)."] 

(VII) Dr. John Green, son of Dr. John Green 
(6), was born in Worcester, April 19, 1784. He was 
graduated at Brown University in 1804, and began 
to practice medicine in Worcester in 1807, a year 
before the death of his father and eight years 
after that of his grandfather, Dr. John Green of 
Revolutionary fame. He seems destined to be re- 
membered longer than either, for he will be known 
to future generations as the founder of the Free 
Public Library of Worcester. Having early decided 
to devote a liberal portion of his fortune to the 
founding of such an institution, he was engaged 
for many years in collecting books, which in 1859 
he presented to the city, adding continually to the 
number afterward, and leaving in his will funds of 
$35,000 for the library, with a provision for further 
accumulation. The funds amounted, November 30, 
1905, to $61,403. 

He studied medicine with his father, succeeded 
to his father's practice at his death, and for half 
a century was the acknowledged leader of his pro- 
fession in this section of the state. He was a good 
student, gentle and sympathetic with his patients, 
especially with women and children, but quite in- 
flexible when it seemed to him necessary ; very 
cautious and also very daring: but his most valuable 
professional quality was the keenest possible obser- 
vation. 

Although this third Dr. John Green is likely 
to be best known hereafter as the founder of 
Worcester's Public Library, contemporary physicians 
and his own patients generally believed him to be 
the greatest physician and surgeon of the three 
who. under the name of Dr. John Green, bad cared 
for this community for ninety-eight years. He was 
the last Dr. Green of the four in this con- 
tinuous family line who had served this neighbor- 
hood medically for over one hundred and thirty- 
five years without a break. He was given the de- 
gree of M. D. by Harvard College in 1815, and in 
1826 by his Alma Mater, Brown University. He 
was treasurer of the District Medical Society three 
years, vice-president five years, and president seven ; 
vice-president of the American Medical Society in 
1S54: the first president of the Worcester County 
Horticultural Society; a councillor of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society and of the American Anti- 
quarian Society. He was an early and constant 
patron and supporter of the Worcester Natural 
History Society. On account of age and failing 
health, he retired from practice about 1855. He 
died in his eighty-second year, at Worcester, Oc- 
tober 17. T865. He married Dolly Curtis, daughter 
of David Curtis, of Worcester, and aunt of the late 
George William Curtis, the distinguished author and 
orator. They had no children. 

(VII) James Green, son of Dr. John Green 
(6), was born in Worcester. December 23. 1802, 
less than six years before the death of his father, 
who died at the early age of forty-five years, and 
left a family of nine children surviving him. The 
oldest son. John (7), had already received his col- 
legiate and medical education, and had started in 
1826 by his Alma Mater, Brown University. He 
practice : but James had to go to work at the age 
of twelve, after very little schooling. This 
calamity made him very eager afterwards to give 
his 'own children the best education he could. 
He lived all his life in Worcester, and married. 
May I, ^8,^■^. Elizabeth Swett, daughter of Samuel 
Swett of Boston and Dedham. Massachusetts, a 
merchant engaged in foreign trade. They lived at 



 f^i'-aP-r- ;:'*<■■ 



m:^:-fm 






jm »**>►. 




Jyc^^f^ 



j32^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



27 



12 Harvard street, in Worcester, for about twenty- 
eight years just preceding his death on June 10, 
1874. All their children were born in Worcester. 
The widow Elizabeth continued to live in the same 
house until she died, May 7, 1901, leaving her three 
sons surviving. Their children were : 

1. James, born February 15, 1834; died Febru- 
arv 17, 1834. 

2. John, born April 2, 1835 ; graduated at Har- 
vard College, 185s : J^I- D.. Harvard : an eminent 
ophthalmologist and leader of his profession in St. 
Louis, Missouri. [See sketch of his life later, — 
"Dr. John Green (VUI)."] 

3. Samuel Swett, born February 20, 1837 ; 
A. B., Harvard. 1858; Harvard Divinity School, 
1864; Harvard A. M., 1870. [See a sketch of his 
life later, — "Samuel S. Green, VHI."] 

4. Elizabeth Sprague. born April 19, 1839; she 
died at St. Louis at the home of her brother John, 
January g, 1870. 

5. James, born March 2, 1841 ; Harvard A. B., 
1862: LL. B., 1864; A. M., 1865. [See sketch of 
his life, later, — "James Green, VHL"] 

(VH) Meltiah Bourne Green, son of Dr. John 
Green (6), was born in Worcester, July 16, 1806. 
He married Mary Stone Ward, daughter of Artemas 
Ward of Worcester, Massachusetts. He lived in 
Worcester, and died there May 24. 1888. His wife 
died at Worcester, January 7, 1896. Their children 
were : 

1. Meltiah, born August 27, 1838; died August 
29. 1838. 

2. Mary Caroline, born December 13, 1839; 
died August 13, 1840. 

3. Meltiah Bourne, born January 3. 1843 ; 
A. B. Trinity. 1865 ; LL. B. Harvard, 1867. He died 
at Geneva, Switzerland, December 27, 1877. 

(VH) William Nelson Green, son of William 
E. Green (6), was born in Milford. Massachusetts, 
where his father lived and practiced law for a time, 
February 23, 1804. He was educated in the public 
schools of Worcester. He studied law in the office 
of Samuel M. Burnside in Worcester, and was ad- 
mitted to practice in 1S27., From 1833 to 18,36 he was 
the editor of the A'atioiial Aegis, a Worcester news- 
paper, distinguished more for the excellence of its 
editing and the greatness of some of its editors 
after they left the paper, than for any degree of 
financial success attained. Somebody has said that 
half the lawyers in Worcester in the early days 
served their time as editor of the Aegis. He was 
for a time a school teacher. He will be remembered 
best for his high-minded and efficient service as the 
first judge of the city court. When Worcester was" 
incorporated as a city in 1848. the new charter es- 
tablished a police court, of which he became the 
justice. Judge Green was imdoubtedly the best 
qualified among the justices of the peace who had 
hitherto administered the criminal law in the town 
of Worcester. He was not only the first but the 
last and only judge of the Worcester police court. 
When, after a faithful service of twenty year.s, 
Judee Green retired, the municipal court was es- 
tablished and the police court abolished to meet 
new needs of the city. Judge Green loved nature 
and was very fond of hunting. He died December 
6. 1870. two years after retiring from the judgeship. 
He married. February 23. 1839. Sarah Munroe 
(Ball) Staples, who was born in Northboro and 
was a widow when he married her. They had five 
children, horn in Worcester : 

I. William Nelson. (8), born January 10, 1843. 
He enlisted in the 25th Massachusetts Regiment, and 
was promoted for gallantry in the battle of Roanoke 
to be second lieutenant in the I02d New York Regi- 



ment. He was in the battle of Cedar Mountain and 
was a prisoner in Libby Prison. He received special 
mention for brave conduct in the battle of Chancel- 
lorsville, and a commission as lieutenant-colonel in 
the 173d New York Regiment. He was shot at 
Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, during a battle, and died 
May 13. 1864, from the wound. 

2. Timothy Ruggles, born June 22, 1844. He 
lived manv years in New York with his uncle An- 
drew H. Green, and after his uncle's death returned 
to Worcester, where he now resides. 

(VH) Andrew Haswell Green, son of William E. 
Green (6) was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
October 6, 1820. The best account of the life and 
achievements of "the Father of Greater New York" 
is that written by his cousin and friend, Samuel 
Swett Green, librarian of the Free Public Library 
of Worcester, and read at the semi-annual meeting 
of the American Antiquarian Society, April 27. 1904. 
From that account tlie writer of this sketch has 
drawn most of the facts and in many cases has 
quoted freely from it. 

At the age of fifteen Mr. Green left school. His 
early education was obtained at the old Thomas 
street school at the corner of Summer street. He 
went to work in New York city, whither he jour- 
neyed by stage and steamboat. He was employed 
first at the munificent salary of fifty dollars a year 
in the store of Hinsdale & Atkins as errand boy. 
His next position w-as clerk in the store of Lee, 
Savage & Co., wholesale cloth merchants and im- 
porters, where he steadily advanced until he had 
reached nearly the head position when the firm 
failed. After a severe illness and return to Green 
Hill for some months during convalescence and re- 
cuperation, he entered the employ of Wood, Johns- 
ton & Barritt, linen importers. Exchange Place, 
New York. Then he went to the house of Simeon 
Draper. At the age of twenty-one he went to 
Trinidad, where he spent a year on the sugar plan- 
tation of Mr. Burnley, a friend of the family. While 
there he became interested in the cultivation of 
sugar cane, the manufacture of sugar and molasses 
and tried without success to introduce some im- 
provement in the methods and processes in use. 
He gave up the attempt, returned to New York and 
entered the law office of a relative, John W. Mit- 
chell. He began the practice of law in the office 
of Samuel J. Tilden, "whose political principles he 
shared," to quote his own words, "and with whom 
he sustained confidential and trusted relations 
throughout life." 

He was elected trustee of the schools in the 
fourth ward of New York, and afterward school 
commissioner and member of the board of educa- 
tion. He was made president of the board, which 
consisted of forty four members, in 1855. Two 
years later he was appointed a commissioner of 
Central Park and became treasurer of the board of 
commissioners, president and executive officer of 
the bonrd. and for ten years comptroller of the 
park. He had complete supervision of the engineers, 
landscape architect^, gardeners, and the whole force 
of laborers amounting at times to three thousand 
men. The office of comptroller of the park was 
cieated especially for Mr. Green. It happened that 
in the first years of the park there was constant 
friction between the commissioners and the Tweed 
ring, then being formed, and the commissioners 
were quite willing to leave the work to anyone who 
would attend to it. So Mr. Green was made both 
president and treasurer. As the park was developed 
and grew in popularity some member of the board 
intimated that it was not right for one man to hold 
both offices, and Mr. Green was elected treasurer. 



28 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



to which the salary, \vhich the legislature had 
authorized the commissioners to pay either to the 
president or treasurer, was to be paid. But Mr. 
Green promptly declined to serve in the salaried 
position, whereupon another member was elected 
treasurer and he was elected president without sal- 
ary. The new treasurer failed to give satisfaction 
and in a few months the office of comptroller of 
parks was created and Mr. Green elected to fill the 
position. The nominal president of the board had 
the duty of presiding at meetings, but all the exe- 
cutive and administrative work devolved on the 
comptroller, who was likewise the treasurer. He 
served in this very important and honorable posi- 
tion for ten years, when the Tweed charter of 
1870 removed the members of the board from office 
and turned Central Park over to a department of 
the city government appointed by A. Oakey Hall, 
mayor. Although Mr. Green was appointed a mem- 
ber of the new board the conditions were such that 
he resigned in 1872. 

Chancellor MacCracken. of New York Univer- 
sity, in speaking of Mr. Green, said that "by his 
care for Central Park he was led to care for related 
enterprises, such as the Museum of Art, the Museum 
of Science and the Zoological Garden." He was 
constantly alive to the work of beautifying the 
city, whether by individual effort or as a member 
of one or another organization. A recent address 
declared that his thoughtfulness was woven into 
the structure and visible aspect of New York. Here 
we see it in a reserved acre of greensward ; there 
in the curve of a graceful line, like the beautiful 
span of Washington Bridge, and somewhere else 
in a sweet sounding name, like Morningside. "Mr. 
Green had a rare combination of qualities," said 
Samuel Swett Green, "to fit him to do the great 
work which he did in laying out and developing 
Central Park. He had an eye for the picturesque 
and beautiful, and a fondness and aptitude for the 
kind of practical service needed. He had too a 
passion for having everything done thoroughly." 

Mr. Green was naturally appointed a mem- 
ber of the original board of commissioners on 
the Niagara reservation, and held the position until 
his death, being president most of the time. An 
island formerly known as Bath Island has been 
named for Mr. Green, Several years ago the -state 
of New York established a commission with the 
title "Trustees of Scenic and Historical Places and 
Objects in the State of New York." The name has 
twice been changed and is now American Scenic 
and Historic Preservation Society. Mr. Green was 
the founder and enthusiastic president of this so- 
ciety from its organization until his death. 

In 1865 the legislature imposed upon the com- 
missioners of Central Park the duty of laying out 
that portion of the island lying north of One Hun- 
dred and Fifty-fifth street. It was while he was 
directing the work of laying out Central Park and 
Upper New York that Mr. Green first called at- 
tention in a serious and deliberate manner to the 
desirability of the union of the towns and cities 
now Dopularly known as the Greater New York. 
The first result of Mr. Green's recommendation of 
the consolidation w-as the annexation in 1873 of 
Morrisiania, West' Farms and Kingsbridge. Mr. 
Green presented to the legislature of New York in 
iSqo a notable brief, advocating consolidation. A 
referendum in 1804 resulted in a favorable vote in 
all the four counties concerned. The commission to 
draft the charter was appointed by the state, June 
g. 1806. with Mr. Green as chairman. The charter 
as drafted became a law November 4. 1897. The 
new city was established January i, 1898, and May 



22, 1S98, Mr. Green appeared before the legislature 
by invitation to receive congratulations for his work 
in forming the Greater New York. A thoughtful 
address was given by him. A medal was struck 
off as a memorial and presented to Mr. Green Oc- 
tober 6, 1898, and by general consent also he has 
come to be known as "The Father of Greater New 
York." 

Mr. Green's connection with the New York 
library system is interesting history. He vv'as one 
of the executors of the will of his law partner, 
the late Samuel J. Tilden, and was one of the origi- 
nal trustees, three in number, appointed in the will 
to add to their number and establish a great free 
library in New York. Mr. Green's efforts resulted 
in saving much of the property for the libraries 
when all was involved in contests and litigations. 
It was his scheme to bring about the union of some 
of the great libraries in New York, and he quietly 
secured the legislation necessary with the final re- 
sult of consolidating the Astor, Lenox and Tilden 
foundations in the formation of the New York 
Public Library, which, Mr. S. S. Green says, 
"through the assiduous and valuable labors of its 
well known and accomplished librarian. Dr. John 
S. Billings, by means of subsequent consolidations 
and aided by a munificent gift from Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie and by city appropriations, bids fair to 
become one of the most important institutions in 
New York." 

Mr. Green first became prominent in the whole 
country of which New York is the metropolis, by 
his work in the office of comptroller in behalf of 
good government during the exposure of the frauds 
of the Tweed ring. This office he held for 
five years, till in 1876, he became executor of 
the will of William B. Ogden, the railroad 
king of New York and Chicago. Had Mr. Tilden 
been declared president of the United States, Mr. 
Green would undoubtedly have been in the cabinet. 
He was one of the original trustees of the New York 
and Brooklyn Bridge. In 1890 the legislature ap- 
pointed him a commissioner to locate and approve 
the plan of the great railroad bridge across the 
Hudson river which is to join Manhattan Island 
with the rest of the country. He was elected to the 
constitutional convention in 1894. 

He was a member of the New York Historical 
Society, the New York Genealogical and Biographi- 
cal Society and many other societies devoted to 
geography, history, the fine arts, science and philan- 
thropy. He became a member of the American 
Antiquarian Society in October, 1889, and left that 
society $5,000 in his will. He also bequeathed $5,000 
to Clark University in Worcester, and $1,000 to 
the Isabella Heimath, a home for aged women in 
New York. In politics he was a Democrat, although 
he was not in agreement with the majority of his 
party in his position on the tariff'. He was a Pro- 
tectionist. He was killed November l.^, 1903, by 
a crazy man just as he was entering his home in 
New York. He never married, but lived in his own 
home. Park avenue. New York. 

He was the owner of the old homestead on Green 
Hill, where he made large purchases of land de- 
stined it seems to benefit the city of \yorcester, 
where he was born, as greatly as his service in the 
Park Board of New York benefited the city of his 
adoption. He enlarged the old house by cutting 
it in two, moving back the rear portion and building 
between the front arid back of the old building a 
fine mansion, thus securing in the middle of the 
house large and higher rooms on the lower floor 
and suits of apartments for himself, his brothers 
and sisters upstairs. Later a spacious porch and 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



29 



veranda were added in front. His deep affection 
for his family and reverence for his ancestors were 
frequently shown. "He always carried his brothers 
and sisters and their children and grandchildren in 
his heart," writes Mr. S. S. Green, "and no one of 
them ever suffered for the lack of a home or the 
comforts of life. Mr. Green placed a mural bronze 
tablet in the interior of the church at Greenville 
in remembrance of its first pastor (his ancestor), 
Thomas Green. Had I given him encouragement to 
believe that it was fitting to single out one from 
the thousands of young men who did service in the 
civil war for especial and lavish commemoration 
he would, I am sure, have engaged St. Gaudens, 
or another sculptor as distinguished, to have made 
a statue of his nephew, William Nelson Green, Jr., 
to be placed in an appropriate position in Worcester." 

It should be said of Mr. Green, as of his brothers 
to whom reference is made elsewhere, that they 
were descended from the Bournes of the Cape, from 
Governor Dudley, of the Massachusetts Bay colony, 
and from Rev. John Woodbridge, a brother of 
Benjamin Woodbridge, whose name stands first 
on the roll of graduates of Harvard College. He 
was also descended from the three Tillies and John 
Howland, passengers on the "^Mayflower." 

His character has been described by the Nezv 
York Tribune, which said of him at the time he 
was appointed deputy comptroller : "Incorruptible, 
inaccessible to partisan or personal considerations, 
immovable by threats or bribes, and honest by the 
very constitution of his own nature" and as fitted 
for the office by "long e-xperience in public affairs, 
strict sense of accountability and thorough methods 
of doing business." Hon. Seth Low, mayor of 
New York at the time of Mr. Green's death, said of 
him : "It may truthfully be said that to no one 
man \vho has labored in and for the city during the 
last fifty years is the city under greater and more 
lasting obligations than to Andrew H. Green. The 
city itself, in some of its most beautiful and endur- 
ing features, is the monument of his love ; and the 
city may well cherish his honored name with the 
undying gratitude that is due to a citizen who has 
made it both a greater and better city than it was." 

(VII) John Plimpton Green, son of William E. 
Green (6), was born in Worcester, January 19, 1819. 
He studied medicine in New York and practiced 
there for a time. He removed to Whampoa, China, 
thence to Copaipo in Chile, South America, where 
he spent most of his mature years, practicing medi- 
cine. He died January 6. 1892, at Green Hill. 

(VII) Samuel Fisk Green, son of William E. 
Green (6). was born at Green Hill, Worcester, 
October 10, 1822; died there May 28, 1884. He 
studied medicine and practiced for a time, but when 
a young man went to Batficotta in the Island of 
Ceylon as a missionary physician for the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He 
spent almost a quarter of a century in ministering 
personally to the wants of both the bodies and 
souls of the Tamil population of the Island. After 
his return to Green Hill, he continued to translate 
medical treatises into the Tamil language until his 
death. Besides practicing medicine in Ceylon he 
established there a medical school, and his pupils 
were very numerous. He is given the credit of 
creating the medical literature of the Tamil language. 
He married. May 22. 1862. Margaret Phelps Wil- 
liams. Since his death his family has been occupy- 
ing the mansion at Green Hill. His children were: 
Julia E., born January i, 1864; Lucy Maria. Febru- 
ary 26, 1865 ; Mary Ruggles. September 22, 1867 ; 
Nathan Williams, March 13, 1871. 

(VII) Oliver Bourne (ireen,' son of William E. 
Green (6), was born January i, 1826. He and his 



brother, Martin Green, of Worcester are the only 
survivors among the eleven children of Squire 
Green. His early education was received in the 
school house at the corner of Thomas and Sum- 
mer streets. For a few winters he taught school, 
but the building of steam railroads attracted him 
and he obtained a position as rodman on trench 
survey for the New York & Erie Railroad, and for 
a few weeks assisted in the preliminary surveys. 
What he himself calls his first position, however, 
was on the Worcester & Nashua Railroad, where, 
begining as rodman, he learned the art and science 
of civil engineering in the way it was then taught, 
by experience. He ne.xt went to the Hudson River 
Railroad and took part in the survey of what has 
since become one of the greatest railroads in the 
country. He was particularly strong in field work 
and he obtained more than his share of that part 
of the engineering. After the Hudson River job, 
he became resident engineer in charge of part of 
the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 
He was stationed in West Virginia in the section 
containing the Welling tunnel, one of the longest 
on the road. It is about thirty miles from the 
Ohio line. He stayed there two years and a half 
until the road was completed and in operation. He 
was occupied for a time in the survey for the 
Cincinnati, Lebanon & Xenia Railroad, only part of 
which was built at the time. He accepted the dif- 
ficult task of engineer of a division on the Missis- 
sippi Central Railroad, of which his brother, Mar- 
tin Green, was later the chief engineer. He spent 
the years 1853-54-55 in the south. In 1857 he was 
engaged in the dredging and contracting business 
with his brother, Martin Green, and later for over 
thirty years on his own account. He did much of 
the construction along the Lake front, more than 
any other contractor. He had many city contracts 
for breakwaters and in the park system of Chicago. 
He built a mile of the Lake Shore drive. One of 
his best known jobs was done in 1877 for the 
Sturgeon Bay Canal Company. He constructed the 
canal which connects Green Bay with Lake Michi- 
gan and saved all the lumber vessels that enter 
Green Bay at least two hundred miles on their round 
trip. 

Since 1867 Mr. Green has lived at 403 LaSalle 
avenue, Chicago. His house was burned there in 
the "great fire," but he rebuilt later. He continued 
in active business until 1898, when he turned his 
business over to his son, Andrew Hugh Green. 
Mr. Green is a member of the Western Society of 
Civil Engineers and is one of the oldest memljers. 
He is a member of the New England Congregational 
Church of Chicago. He is a Democrat in politics 
with a belief in the Republican principle of pro- 
tection that made him what he calls an Eclectic. 

He married, August 28, 1855, and in 1905 cele- 
brated his golden wedding in the mansion on Green 
Hill. It was a notable event socially, from the 
gathering of the relatives and several old school- 
mates and other friends who had not met for years. 

His wife, Louise Pomeroy, was the daughter of 
Hazen and Lois Pomeroy. She was born in Stan- 
stead. Canada, and he met her while making the 
survey of the Mississippi Central Railroad. She 
was a school teacher there. Their children are : 
Mary Pemeroy, born April 26, 1857, lives with her 
parents. Olivia, born December 10, 1859, married 
Wyllis W. Baird, and they have two children : 
^yarner Green Baird, a student in Cornell ; Katha- 
rine L. Baird. Andrew Hugh, born November 26, 
1869. graduated at Harvard University in 1892, and 
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1896. 
He took over his father's business, with which he 
was thoroughly familiar, and having introduced 



30 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



some of the newest methods and latest machinery, 
sold it in 1901 to advantage, and has been travel- 
ing since then. 

(.VIIj Martin Green, son of William E. Green 
(6), was born in Worcester, April 24, 1828. The 
room in which he was born in the homestead at 
Green Hill is the same in which his father was 
born and died, and in which his ten brothers and 
sisters were born. He received his schooling in 
the old school at the corner of Summer and Thomas 
streets, when Warren Lazell was the teacher of 
the English department and Charles Thurber of the 
Latin department. He took a course at Little Blue 
Seminary at Farmington, Maine. His father in- 
tended to have him go to college, but he was at- 
tracted to the profession in which his brother Oliver 
was making good progress, and he started his 
career as civil engineer as chainman in the survey 
for the Hudson River Railroad, where his brother 
was also employed. He was promoted rapidly and 
became a proficient civil engineer. When the sur- 
vey was completed to Greenbush, he returned to the 
old home at Green Hill, but went to work for the 
Worcester & Nashua Railroad Company, When the 
work was done on the Nashua road he accepted 
a position with the Pennsylvania Coal Company 
Railroad. He was occupied here for three years 
in surveying and building gravity railroads in Lu- 
zerne county, Pennsylvania. When the work was 
done he was ofifered the superintendency of the 
road. He returned to Worcester but was called 
to take the position of division engineer on the 
New York & Harlem Railroad. He was in charge 
of the construction of the line from Millerton to 
Copake. When the work was done he was selected 
as chief engineer for the Lebanon Springs Railroad 
Company. This road was to run from Chatham, 
New York, to Bennington, Vermont, through a 
rough and hilly country and presented some dif- 
ficult engineering problems. The work was left 
unfinished on account of the financial troubles of 
the railroads involved in the great frauds of Robert 
Schuyler, who had been president of sixteen rail- 
road companies. 

Mr. Green was then appointed chief engineer of 
the Mississippi Central Railroad, which had been 
begun all along the two hundred and sixty-seven 
miles of its length, and was left by his predecessor 
in the greatest disorder and confusion. Some sec- 
tions he found built a one-fourth mile out of the 
proper course, so that it taxed his resources to build 
curves and schemes to save the work already done. 
He found the engineering force grossly incompetent. 
When he left this railroad was substantially com- 
plete, but so anxious were the planters, who were 
directors of the road, and the president to keep him 
that they offered him what was at that time a very 
large salary, $20,000 a year, to remain. And after 
he had actually left, they sent a delegation to New 
York to see him, and another to Chicago to try to 
persuade him to come back. No stronger testimony 
to the value of his work as a railroad engineer need 
be cited. To his natural gift for this kind of work 
he added great physical strength and vigor, and he 
gave all his energy to the performance of the work, 
whatever it might be, that he had in hand. The 
Mississippi Central is now a part of the Illinois 
Central Railroad. As first constructed by Mr. Green 
it ran from the junction with the Mempliis & 
Charleston Railroad, six miles north of the Ten- 
nessee line to Canton and Jackson, Mississippi. It 
was a verv important railroad in the southern in- 
terests. He had the honor to run the first loco- 
motive ever run in the state of Mississippi. 

Although Mr. Green received offers of positions 
as chief engineer from three other railroads, he 



persisted in his purpose when leaving Mississippi 
and went to Chicago, where he was employed first 
to study the question of a tunnel under the Chicago 
river, to gather statistics and make plans. He pro- 
ceeded with the work of building the Chicago tun- 
nel and remained with the work until the coffer 
dams were built. He then w'ent into business on 
liis own account as contractor and dredger. At 
that time one of the prime necessities of commer- 
cial Chicago was the widening and deepening of 
Chicago river and the construction of proper 
wharves for shipping. He had the contracts for the 
dredging of the river from the lake to the old Rush 
street bridge. He took out the old government 
li.ght houses and government barracks and the old 
fort. The river was made about five times its 
original width. He also improved the north branch 
of the river as far as Ward's rolling mill, and the 
'outb branch for about twelve miles. He was in 
Chicago in its first great period of development, 
and of that work he took a large and im- 
portant part. In 1867 he sold his Chicago 
business and went to Peshtigo, Wisconsin, 
for the Peshtigo Lumber Company, in which 
William B. Ogden was interested, with whom 
Mr. Green was associated during much of his active 
business life. This company owned one hundred 
and seventy-six thousand acres of lumber land. As 
manager of this vast property he had to erect saw 
mills and grist mills and build two large ships for 
the lumber trade. He was in Peshtigo three years. 
He built the ship canal at Benton Harbor, Michi- 
,gan. This canal gave steamships access to Benton 
in the heart of the peach country. He owned a line 
of boats and when the work was completed his 
line took during the season forty thousand ba.skets 
to Chicago every night. Besides his steamship line 
he built and owned saw and grist mills at Benton 
Harbor. 

Before the great fire in Chicago he returned and 
was interested with his brother in the contracting 
business. The fire caused hmi to over-work and 
break down. On May 23, 1872, by advice of his 
physician, he returned to' Green Hill, Worcester, 
Massachusetts, to rest and recuperate. The life in 
Worcester attracted him and he remained here, 
developing the Green Hill estate to its present state. 
He removed, November 1.3, 1905, to No. 974 
Pleasant street, where he has since lived. Mr. 
Green has never cared to join secret societies and 
clubs. He is a member of Central Congregational 
church, Worcester. He served three years on the 
Worcester park board and for about three years on 
the board of trustees ,of the State Lunatic Asylum 
at Westboro, Massachusetts. 

He married, December 25. 1850, Mary Frances 
Stewart, of the New York Stewart family. She 
was born in New York city, December 25, 1821, 
and died at 4 Melville street, Worcester, April 20, 
IQ05. Their children are: William Ogden, born in 
Chicago, September 26, i860; Samuel Martin, born 
at Benton Harbor, Michigan, April 13, 1864. 

(VIII) John Green, of St. Louis, Jilissouri, son 
of James Green (7), was born in Worcester, 
Massachusetts, April 2. 18.35. He was fitted for col- 
lege at the Worcester Classical and English high 
school : entered Harvard College, 1851 ; was .grad- 
uated, A. B.,.i8ss: S. B.. 1856: .A., m!, 1859: M. D., 
1S66. He studied medicine at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, under the direction of Profs. Morrill and 
Jeffries Wyman ; also at the Massachusetts Medical 
College in Boston : and from 1858 to i860 in Lon- 
don. Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. He was admitted 
a Fellow of the Massachusetts Medical Society, on 
examination in 1858. He was elected a member 
of the Boston Society of Natural History in 1856, 




», ^ 




WORCESTER COUNTY 



31 



and member of the council, as curator of Coin- 
parative Anatomy, in 1S57; in the latter j'ear he 
accompanied Prof. Jeffries Wyman on a scientific 
expedition to , Surinam (Dutch Guiana). He began 
the practice of medicine in Boston in 1861. He 
was a member of the Boston Medical Association; 
the Suffolk District Medical Society, of which he 
was elected secretary in 1865 ; and of the Boston 
Society for Medical Observation. He was appointed 
a delegate to the American Medical Association, 
from Boston, in 1864 and 1865. He held successively 
the positions of attending physician and attending 
surgeon at the central office of the Boston Dis- 
pensary. During 1862 he was in the medical service 
of the" Western Sanitary Commission and of the 
United States Sanitary Cominission, and was for 
several months acting assistant surgeon in the 
Army of the Tennessee. 

In 1S65 he went again to Europe for the pur- 
pose of continuing studies in ophthalmology, in Lon- 
don, Paris, and Utrecht. In 1866 he removed to 
St. Louis, Missouri, where he has since resided 
and practiced his profession. He is a member of 
the American Ophthalmological Society, elected 
1866: one of the original members of the American 
Otological Society, founded 1868; and a member 
of the International Ophthalmological Congress 
since 1872. He was a member by special appoint- 
inent of the International Medical Congress held in 
Philadelphia in 1876. and was secretary of the sec- 
tion of Ophthalmology. In 1867 he was appointed 
lecturer on Ophthalmology in the St. Louis Summer 
School of Medicine : in 1868, professor of Ophthal- 
mology and Otology in the St. Louis College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, which position he held 
during tlie two years of existence of that institution ; 
in 1871 lecturer on Ophthalmology in the St. Louis 
Medical College ; in 1872 ophthalmic surgeon to 
the St. Louis Eye and Ear Infirmary, and consulting 
ophthalmic surgeon to the St. Louis City Hospital ; 
and, in 1874 ophthalmic surgeon to St. Luke's Hospi- 
tal. In 1886 he was elected professor of Ophthal- 
mology in the St. Louis Medical College (later the 
Medical Department of Washington University, St. 
Louis, Missouri). He is president of the St. Louis 
Ophthalmological Society. He is a member of the 
St. Louis Academy of Science, of which he was 
president in iSgs ; tnember of the board of trustees 
of the Missouri Botanical Garden (Shaw's Garden), 
since 1895 ; member of the Missouri Historical So- 
ciety ; member of the American Antiquarian So- 
ciety; member (and first vice-president) of the 
St. Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute 
of America ; etc. He has contributed scientific 
papers to leading medical journals, to the "Trans- 
actions of the American Ophthalmological Society," 
"Transactions of the American Otological Society," 
"Proceedings of the International Ophthalmological 
Congress" (London, 1S72, and New York, 1876), 
"Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences." etc. 
The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon 
him by Washington University in 1905, and by the 
University of Missouri in igo6. He is a charter 
member of the University Club of St. Louis ; mem- 
ber of the St. Louis Club, the (discontinued) Gcr- 
mania Club, the Liederkranz Club : of the Round 
Table Club : and member (president from 1890 to 
1906. now honorary president) of the Harvard Club 
of St. Louis. He is also a member of the Society of 
the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Society of 
Colonial Wars. 

Dr. Green married. October 23, 1868. Harriet 
Louisa Jones, daughter of George Washington and 
Caroline (Partridge) Jones, of Templeton, Massa- 
chusetts: of this marriage two children, John (born 
at Templeton. Massachusetts, August 2, 1873), and 



Elizabeth (born in St. Louis, December 3, 1878), 
are living in St. Louis. His home is at 2670 Wash- 
ington avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. 

(VIII) Samuel Swett Green, was born in Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, February 20, 1837. He is a 
son of the late James Green (7), and a nephew of 
Dr. John Green (7), the principal founder of the 
Free Public Library, of Worcester. 

His descent froin Thomas Green (I), who came 
to this country early in the seventeenth century, 
has been described already, and an account of his 
ancestors in the line of the Greens has been given 
above. Mr. Green's mother was the late Elizabeth 
Green, daughter of Sainuel Swett, of Boston and 
Dedham. Through her mother, a daughter of Dr. 
John Sprague, of Boston, she and the subject of this 
sketch are descended from an even earlier resident 
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony than Thomas 
Green, namely, Ralph Sprague, who came to Charles- 
town in 1629. from Upway, Devonshire, England. 
Through his great-great-grandfather, Gen. Timothy 
Ruggles, of Hardwick, Mr. Green is also descended 
from Rev. John Woodbridge, one of the earliest 
settlers of Newbury, and from Mr. Woodbridge's 
wife's father, Thomas Dudley, the second governor 
of the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Rev. John 
Woodbridge was the brother of Rev. Dr. Benjamin 
Woodbridge, whose name stands first on the list of 
graduates of Harvard College. Through the same 
ancestor, Mr. Green is descended from John Tilley, 
his wife and his daughter, Elizabeth, wife of John 
Howland. These four ancestors came to this coun- 
try in the "Mayflower." 

The first school attended by Samuel S. Green 
was that of Mrs. Levi Heywood. Her school was 
discontinued, however, before long, and he was 
sent for several years to another infant school, kept 
by the late Mrs. Sarah B. Wood, afterward a resi- 
dent of Chicago, the wife of Jonathan Wood. 
From that private school he passed, upon 
exainination, into the public grammar school 
on Thomas street, which, during his studies 
there was under the charge of Mr. Caleb 
B. Metcalf. Going next to the high school, he grad- 
uated from that institution in 1854, and immediately 
entered Harvard College. Among his classmates 
there, were two other graduates of the Worcester 
high school, namely, Eugene Frederick Bliss, who 
has been for most of his life, since graduation, a 
citizen of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the late Lieut. 
Thomas Jefferson Spurr, who was mortally wounded 
at the battle of Antietam. Mr. Green graduated from 
Harvard College in 1858. In the early part of the 
summer of 1859 he sailed from Boston for Smyrna 
as a passenger in the barque "Race Horse," and be- 
fore returning home, in the same vessel, visited 
Constantinople. Remaining two years in Worcester 
on account of ill-health, he resumed his studies at 
Harvard University in the autumn of 1861, and 
graduated from the divinity school connected with 
that institution in 1864. He visited Europe again in 
1877. 1902, 1903. 1904 and 1906, and added in 1905 
to extensive travels previously made in this coun- 
try, a visit to Alaska. During the civil war, and 
while in the divinity school. Mr. Green was drafted 
for service in the army, but was debarred from 
entering it by delicate health. He took the degree 
of Master of Arts at Harvard University in 1870, 
and June 28, 1877, was chosen an honorary mem- 
ber of the Phi Beta Kappa society by the chapter of 
the order connected with the same university. 

In 1864 Mr. Green became bookkeeper in the 
lilechanics National Bank of Worcester, and in the 
course of a few months, teller in the Worcester 
National Bank. The latter position he Ji^'d for 
several years. He was offered the position of cashier 



32 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



of the Citizens National Bank, to succeed the late 
Mr. John C. Ripley, but declined it ; as he also 
dechned, at about the same time, a place in the Wor- 
cester County Institution for Savings. 

Mr. Green became a director of the Free Pub- 
lic Library. January I, 1867, and four years later, 
January 15, 1871, librarian of the same institution. 
The latter position he still holds, having been elected 
for the thirty-sixth year of service January 2, 1906. 
The library has grown rapidly in size and use under 
his care. It contained, December i, 1905, 153,176 
volumes. The use of its books in the year ending 
with that date was 366,935. A feature in that use 
is the remarkably large proportion of books that 
are employed for study and purposes of reference. 
Mr. Green is regarded as an authority among 
librarians in respect to matters relating to the use 
of libraries as popular educational institutions, and 
in respect to the establishment of close relations 
between libraries and schools. He was a pioneer in 
the work of bringing about inter-library loans and 
in a large use of photographs and engravings m 
supplementing the value of books. He has for a 
few years past set the example of having, in a library, 
talks about books on specified subjects, and is now 
conducting some interesting experiments in bring- 
ing the users of the circulating department and the 
children's room under the influence of the best 
works of art. 

Mr. Green was one of the founders of the Amer- 
ican Library Association, and is a life fellow of 
the society. He was for several years the chair- 
man of the finance committee of that body and its 
vice-president for 1S87-9 and 1892-3. In 1891 Mr. 
Green was chosen president of the association, and 
presided at the annual meeting held that year in 
San Francisco. He was in 1896 the first president 
of the council. He is an original Fellow of the 
Library Institute, founded in 1905 ; an organization 
supposed to be composed of a limited number of the 
most distinguished librarians of the country. Mr. 
Green was a delegate of the American Library As- 
sociation to the International Congress of Librarians 
held in London in October, 1877, was a member of 
the council of that body, and took an active part 
in the discussions carried on in its meetings. Be- 
fore the close of the Congress, the Library Associa- 
tion of the United Kingdom was formed. Mr. Green 
was chosen an honorary member of that association, 
in July, 1878. He presided for a day over the 
World's Congress of Librarians held in Chicago 
in 1903, and at a meeting of the American Library 
Association held at Chicago University the same 
year. Mr. Green was a vice-president of the In- 
ternational Congress of Librarians held in Lon- 
don in 1897. In 1890 he was appointed by the gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts an original member of the 
Free Public Library Commission of the Common- 
wealth, and was reappointed in 1894, 1899 and 1904. 
Mr. Green was one of the founders and the original 
first vice-president of the Massachusetts Library 
Club. He was for many years a member of the com- 
mittee of the overseers of Harvard LIniversity to 
make an annual examination of the library of the 
university, occupied a similar position in connection 
with the Boston Public Library for a single year, 
and began, in 1SS7, to deliver annual courses of 
lectures as lecturer on "Public libraries as popular 
educational institutions" to the students of the 
School of Library Economy connected with Colum- 
bia College. New York city. He has also lectured 
at the Library School since it became an institu- 
tion of the state of New York, and was chosen a 
member of a committee to examine the school in 
both places. 



As librarian* of the Free Public Library, Mr. 
Green has gained for himself and his library a wide 
reputation. In "The Worcester of 1898" it is said 
of him that "his purpose has been from the first 
to make the Public Library an instrument for popu- 
lar education and a practical power in the com- 
munity. To this end he has written and spoken 
much during the past twenty years, and his efforts 
and advice have influenced, in no slight degree, 
library methods and administration throughout the 
United States. The library methods of Worcester 
have been studied in the Department of the Seine, 
in which the city of Paris is situated. Mr. Green's 
advice has been sought by the Educational De- 
partment of the English government. The Free 
Public Library of Worcester has recently been de- 
scribed at great length by a German scholar as an 
example worthy to be followed in that country, 
in advocating the introduction of popular libraries, 
such as we have in the United States, into Germany." 
There is a picture of the interior of the children's 
room of the Free Public Library in a recent Danish 
pamphlet written by Andr. Sch. Sternberg, of the 
Free Public Library Commission of Denmark. Mr. 
Green was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Historical 
Society of Great Britain, May 8, 1879, and on April 
28, 1880, a member of the American Antiquarian 
Society. Since October 22, 1883, he has been a 
member of the council of the latter organization. 
He was also elected a member of the American 
Historical Association immediately after its forma- 
tion. He was an early metnber of the Colonial 
Society of .Massachusetts and of the American or- 
ganization known as the Descendants of Colonial 
Governors. Mr. Green is a life member of the 
New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and 
was for several years a member of the Archaeologi- 
cal Institute of America, and of the committee on 
the School for Classical Studies at Rome. He is a 
corresponding member of the National Geographi- 
cal Society and of the Historical Society of Wis- 
consin. Fie is a member of the Bunker Hill Monu- 
ment Association, and was for several years a fel- 
low of the American Geographical Society, and a 
member of the American Social Science Associa- 
tion. He has been a manager of the Sons of the 
Revolution, and was a charter member and the first 
lieutenant-governor of the Society of Colonial Wars 
in Massachusetts, presiding at its first general court 
and the dinner which followed it. Mr. Green is a 
member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, 
and of the Old Planters Society. He has been a 
member of the University Club, Boston, from its 
organization, and was an original member of the 
Worcester Club, the St. Wulstan Society, and the 
Worcester Economic Club. He is also a member 
of the old organization, the Worcester Association 
for Mutual Aid in Detecting Thieves. October 12, 
1882. Mr. Green was chosen a member of the board 
of trustees of Leicester Academy, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the resignation of Rev. Edward H. Hall, 
on his removal from Worcester to Cambridge. In 
1886 he assisted in the formation of the Worcester 
High School Association, and was chosen its first 
president, and re-elected to the same position in 
1887. In the summer of 1886 he was chosen presi- 
dent of the Worcester Indian Association and held 
the office for two years. 

Mr. Green has been president of the Worcester 
.^rt Society. He was a member of a committee of 
three asked by the late Mr. Salisbury to consult 
with him about arrangements for starting the Wor- 
cester Art Museum and to help him in the choice 
of the list of corporators. When the Museum was 
organized, he was offered a position as trustee, but 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



33 



declined to accept it. Mr. Green has been, from 
the beginning of the organization, secretary of the 
Art Commission of the St. Wulstan Society. He 
has been treasnrer of the Worcester Pubhc School 
Art League since its establishment in 1895. He has 
been very inlhiential in promoting interest in the 
fine arts in Worcester by means of exhibitions which 
he started in the Public Library building, and by 
the installation in the library of a large collection 
of the best jihotographs of the old and more modern 
masterpieces in painting and sculpture. 

Mr. Green was also, at two different times and 
for several years, treasurer of the Worcester Natural 
History Society, and has been for many years a 
trustee of the Worcester County Institution for 
Savings. In 1903 Mr. Green was made second vice- 
president of the Worcester Harvard Club (which 
not long before he had helped to form) ; and in 
1904, first vice-president. For several years he has 
been a member of the corporation for the adminis- 
tration of the Home for Aged Men. Mr. Green 
formerly wrote constantly for the Library Journal. 
sending an article to the first number, and has 
made many contributions to the proceedings of the 
American Antiquarian Society. He has aLso written 
papers for the American Journal of Social Science, 
the Sunday Rcfieii.' of London and other periodicals. 
Two books by him were published by the late Fred- 
erick Lcypoldt. of New York, namely. "Library 
Aids" and "Libraries and Schools." Both were 
printed in i88,s. The former work, in a less com- 
plete form, had been previously issued by the United 
States Bureau of Education as a circular of in- 
formation. At the request of the secretary of the 
Board of Education of Massachusetts, Mr. Green 
wrote an appendix to his forty-eighth annual re- 
port on "Public Libraries and Schools." The essay 
was afterwards printed as a separate pamphlet. A 
paper bj' him on "The use of pictures in the public 
libraries of Massachusetts" was • printed as an ap- 
pendix to the eighth report of the Free Public 
Library Commission of Massachusetts. Mr. Green 
has made many addresses and read a number of . 
papers on library and other subjects. Among the 
earliest of these are "Personal Relations Between 
Librarians and Readers," a paper which was pre- 
sented to a meeting of librarians who came together 
in Philadelphia in October. 1876, and formed the 
American Library Association (of this paper two 
editions have been printed and exhausted). It was 
made the subject of editorials in several Boston and 
New York newspapers, and the plans of conducting 
a library, described in it, were regarded at the 
time of its appearance as novel and admirable ; 
"Sensational Fiction" in Public Libraries," a paper 
read July i, 1879. at one of the of the sessions of the 
meetings of the American Library Association, held 
in Boston th.it year (this paper was also printed in 
pamphlet form and' widely distributed) : "The Re- 
lations of the Public Library to the Public Schools," 
a paper read before the American Social Science 
Association, at Saratoga, in September, 1880 (this 
address was printed in the form of a pamphlet, and 
has been widely read and very influential in awaken- 
ing an interest in work similar to that described 
in it. in .America and abroad) ; papers and an 
address on subjects similar to the one last men- 
tioned, read or delivered at meetings of the Ameri- 
can Librarv Association in Cincinnati and Buffalo, 
at Round Island, one of the Thousand Isles in the 
St. Lawrence river, in San Francisco, and at a 
meeting of the Library Section of the National Edu- 
cational .-Vssociation, at a meeting in Washington. 
Other important papers bv Mr. Green on questions 
in library economy are "The Library in its relation 
3 



to persons engaged in industrial pursuits ;" "Open- 
ing Libraries on Sundays ;" "The duties of trustees 
and their relations to librarians ;" "Address as Presi- 
dent of the American Library Association ;" "Inter- 
library loans in reference work ;" "Adaptation of 
libraries to constituencies," printed in vol. I of the 
report of the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion for 1892-3 ; "How to encourage the foundation 
of libraries in small towns;" and three closely con- 
nected papers entitled "Discrimination regarding 
'open shelves' in libraries," "What classes of per- 
sons, if any, should have access to the shelves in 
large libraries" and "Lead us not into temptation." 
Addresses have been printed in pamphlet form that 
were made at the opening of library buildings in 
Newark, New Jersey, Rindge, New Hampshire, 
North Brookfield and Oxford, Massachusetts. * 

Mr. Green made remarks at the library 
school in Albany and in two or three Massa- 
chusetts towns favoring the purchase of books 
for grown-up immigrants in the languages to 
which they have been accustomed. He 

wrote "A History of the Public Libraries of Wor- 
cester" for the "Worcester of 1898," and earlier for 
Hurd's "History of Worcester County." He was 
chairman of a committee to supervise the portion of 
that history relating to the town and city of Wor- 
cester. 

The first account of the methods introduced 
by Mr. Green in the conduct of the Free Public 
Library in Worcester, which was printed in pamphlet 
form, was presented as an appendix to his annual 
report as librarian for the year 1874-5, copies of 
which were sent to the Exposition in Philadelphia 
in 1876. It was afterwards reprinted at the request 
of the directors of the Free Public Library for dis- 
tribution. In the fourth report of the Free Public 
Library Commission of Massachusetts, Mr. Green 
wrote on "Libraries and Schools," in the fifth report, 
on "Loaning reference books to small libraries," in 
the seventh report, "On the use of libraries by chil- 
dren" and, as stated above, in the eighth report, 
"On the use of pictures in libraries." He also wrote 
portions of the reports of the Free Public Library 
of Worcester, while a director, and has written nearly 
the whole of the reports (excepting the presidents' 
reports) while librarian. He wrote sketches of the 
lives of such librarians as William Frederick Poole 
and John Fiske for the American Antiquarian So- 
ciety's proceedings. The more elaborate historical 
papers which have been prepared by Mr. Green are : 
"Gleanings from the Sources of the History of the 
Second Parish, Worcester, Massachusetts," read at 
a meeting of the American Antiquarian Society, 
held in Boston, April 25, 1S83, and "The Use of the 
Voluntary System in the Maintenance of Ministers 
in the Colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts 
Bay during the earlier years of their existence," an 
essay which formed the historical portion of the re- 
port of the Council of the American Antiquarian 
Society, which Mr. Green presented to that society 
at its meeting in Boston, April 28, 1886. Both of 
these papers have been printed in a form separate 
from the proceedings of the society for which they 
were written. The latter was highly praised by the 
distinguished student of early ecclesiastical history 
in Massachusetts, the late Rev. Dr. Henry Martyn 
Dexter. Other interesting and valuable historical 
papers by Mr. Green are "Bathsheba Spooner," 
"The Scotch-Irish in America," "The Craigie 
House," and "Some Roman Remains in Britian." 



*The address of welcome at thp dedication in 1904 of the 
building of Clark University Library was printed in the "Pub- 
lications" of the library. 



34 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



He has also written for the American Antiquarian 
Society, and the Colonial Society, elaborate sketches 
of the lives of Pliny Earle Chase, George Bancroft, 
Edward Griffin Porter, Andrew Haswell Green and 
Benjamin Franklin Stevens. Mr. Green was invited 
by the late Justin Winsor to write a chapter in his 
"Narrative and Critical History of the United 
States," but had to decline the invitation for lack 
of time and strength. 

(Vni) James Green, a counsellor-at-law in the 
City of Worcester, was born March 2, 1841, at Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts. His parents were James (7) 
and Elizabeth (Swett) Green. He studied in the 
Worcester public schools, and graduated at Harvard 
College in 1862. The college course held pretty 
strictly then to the classics, mathematics and phil- 
osophy, and he was particularly interested in Greek 
and history and English composition. In the social 
life of the college, he was a member of the Institute 
of 1770, the Hasty Pudding Club, the Haidee Boat 
Club, etc. His college rank was sufficient to give 
him a "Detur" (a' prize for the work of the fresh- 
man year), and parts at the junior and senior ex- 
hibitions. At the time of his graduation, in the 
summer of 1862, the civil war was going on, and the 
fortunes of the Northern side were discouraging. 
He tried to enter the army, against the medical advice 
of his uncle, who had always cared for him pro- 
fessionally, and he actually signed the enlistment 
roll ; but his company was not filled in time to be 
accepted. He had entered the law office of Hon. 
Dwight Foster, at Worcester, before commence- 
ment, and in the spring of 1S63 he entered the 
Harvard Law School; and was a proctor in the 
college, and he received his Harvard degrees of 
LL. B. in 1864, and A. M. in 1865. He passed the 
. year 1864-5 in law offices in New York city, es- 
pecially in the office of Miller, Peet & Nichols, and 
was admitted to the New York bar on examination 
in 1865. Most of the year 1865-6, he was traveling 
in the western states, and in the latter year he was 
admitted to the Worcester bar. He has been in 
practice in Worcester ever since. In January, 1872, 
he went to Europe on account of threatened ill 
health, and spent two years and a half in traveling 
on the continent, and largely in Italy, studying the 
languages wherever he went, and also architecture, 
painting and sculpture and modern history. He 
traveled also in Greece, and journeyed as far as to 
Constantinople and Smyrna. Upon his father's 
death, on June 10, 1874, he returned at once to 
Worce.'iter. Since that time he has busied himself 
a good deal in the care of real estate as well as 
at the law. In 1S77-8 he traveled another year in 
France and Spain and England. 

On June 2, 1881, he married Miss Mary A. Mes- 
singer, of Worcester, daughter of David Sewell and 
Harriet (Sawyer) Messinger. and they have lived 
■ever since at 61 Elm street, Worcester. They have 
had two children, Mary Sprague and Thomas Sam- 
uel Green, who both attended the public schools of 
Worcester, and are now living. After graduating 
at the Classical High School, the daughter at- 
tended Miss Baldwin's school at Bryn Mawr, and 
the son entered Harvard College in 1905. 

James Green's tastes have always been in the 
direction of literary study, and he has interested 
himself a good deal in modern languages and modern 
history: but his life has been too much occupied with 
the details of business, and handicapped by a defect- 
ive eyesight and a too sensitive constitution, to allow 
him to follow out his tastes freely. He became 
very much interested in the late war between the 
British and the Boers in South Africa ; and, feeling 
that the British cause was grossly misrepresented 



in the United States, he wrote a lecture on this 
subject which he delivered before the Society of 
Antiquity in Worcester and afterwards issued as a 
pamphlet. The ground that he covered had been 
very little touched by other pamphleteers ; for he 
tried to show, in contradiction of what was often 
said in American papers, that the British were fight- 
ing for the very same principles for which the 
American colonists fought a century before; and 
that the Boers, in their anger at the British policy 
of emancipating the blacks, were as illiberal and 
false toward the British colonists in South Africa 
as King George's ministers had been toward our 
ancestors in America. This pamphlet was circu- 
lated widely in the United States, and was de- 
clared by many thoughtful critics to be one of the 
very best short statements of the subject that had 
been printed. Upon the unsolicited recommenda- 
tion of a high official at Washington, to the Imperial 
South African Association in London, to reprint 
this pamphlet and circulate it freely in all English- 
speaking countries, it was republished by the asso- 
ciation for free distribution, and the distinguished 
Quaker philanthropist, John Bellows, of Gloucester, 
England, reprinted the book for the association at 
his own expense. Mr. Green has also printed va- 
rious other pamphlets and biographical notices from 
time to time, in his own name and anonymously, 
and among them an address to his college class- 
mates at an anniversary dinner ; a notice of a new 
edition of Aristotle's Musical Problems that had 
been brought out by certain Dutch scholars ; and a 
tribute to the memory of his associate and friend 
at the bar, Hon. David Manning, etc. Mr. Green 
was an early member of the St. Botolph Club, and 
the Massachusetts Reform Club, of Boston, and of 
various local organizations, including the Worcester 
Club, the Shakespeare Club, the Gesang Verein 
Frohsinn, the Twentieth Century Club, and the 
Economic Club, all of Worcester ; and also of clubs 
for reading and conversation in French and Ger- 
man. He was brought up in the historic First Uni- 
tarian Church of Worcester, to which he still be- 
longs. The earlier pages of these Memoirs show 
his descent from four of the Pilgrims of the "May- 
flower," and from Thomas Dudley, second governor, 
and other early Puritans of Massachusetts Bay ; 
and his connection with Henry Dunster, first presi- 
dent, and Benjamin Woodbridge, first-named grad- 
uate, of Harvard College. 

(IX) John Green, Jr., of St. Louis, Missouri, 
was born August 2, 1873, at Templeton, Massa- 
chusetts, the son of Dr. John Green (8). and Harriet 
L. (Jones) Green. He was fitted for college in 
St. Louis, and also with Mr. Charles W. Stone in 
Boston, and entered Harvard College in September, 
iSqi, from which he was graduated A. B. in June, 
1894. He entered the Medical Department of Wash- 
ington University (St. Louis) in October, 1895, 
and was graduated M. D. in April. 1898, receiving 
the Gill prize in Diseases of Children. He entered 
the St. Louis City Hospital on competitive examin- 
ation, and served as junior assistant from June to 
December, 1898. Since November, 1899, he has 
been engaged in the practice of ophthalmology in 
the city of St. Louis. He is a member of the St. 
Louis Medical Society, the Medical Society of City 
Hospital Alumni, the Missouri State Medical Asso- 
ciation, the American Medical Association, the St. 
Louis Medical Library Association and the American 
Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology. 
He has been secretary, vice-president and president 
of the Medical Society of City Hospital Alumni. 
He is also a member of the Society of the Sons of 
the Revolution and the Civic League of St. Louis. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



35 



Dr. Green has published the following pamphlets : 
"The General Practitioner and Ophthalmology," 
"Treatment of Ophthalmia Neonatoruni,"^^ "Double 
Optic Neuritis occurring during Lactation," "Ocular 
Examination as an aid to the early diagnosis of 
Multiple Sclerosis, with report of a Case'' (with 
Dr. S. I. Schwab), "Juvenile Glaucoma Simplex 
associated with Myasthenia Gastrica et Intestinalis," 
"A case of Cerebro-spinal Rhinorrhoea with Retinal 
Changes" (with Dr. S. I. Schwab), "Treatment 
of Certain External Diseases of the Eyes by the 
X-ray," "Ocular Signs and Complications of 
Diseases of the Accessory Sinuses of the Nose," 
"Report on Progress in Ophthalmology for the years 
190J, 1904, 1005 and 1906," and "The Control of 
Municipal Medical Institutions, with special refer- 
ence to the City of St. Louis," etc. He is editor 
of the Department of Ophthalmology of The Inter- 
state Medieal Journal, visiting ophthalmic surgeon 
to the Jewish Hospital Dispensary of St. Louis, and 
consulting ophthalmic surgeon to the St. Louis 
Female Hospital. 

He married, October 29, 1902, Miss Lucretia 
Hall Sturgeon, of St. Louis, Missouri. Their chil- 
dren are: Helen Celeste, born November 23, 1903, 
and Harmon, born July 3, 1905. His office address 
in 1906 is 225 Vanol building, corner of Vandeventer 
avenue and Olive street, St. Louis, Missouri. 

(VIH) William Ogden Green, son of Martin 
Green (7), was born in Chicago, Illinois, September 
26. tS6o. He was educated at the Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute. He went to work first in an 
electric light factory at New Britain, Connecticut; 
then for the Merrick Thread Company, Holyoke, 
Massachusetts. From there he went as a manager 
for a silk mill at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He put 
it into first class condition and left it highly pros- 
perous to take charge of the Peshtigo Lumber Com- 
pany in Wisconsin, for which his father was man- 
ager years before. Andrew H. Green, as trustee 
of the estate of the late William B. Ogden, repre- 
sented the owners, but Mrs. Ogden herself made 
frequent .visits to the property and paid Mr. Green 
high compliments on the reformation he ^ brought 
about and the improvement efifected. By his advice 
the property was sold and he wound up its compli- 
cated affairs in a manner so pleasing to the directors 
that they made him a present of $10,000 at their 
last meeting as a testimonial of their satisfaction. 
He is a member of the American Society of Me- 
chanical Engineers. He is now a member of the 
firm of Ogden, Sheldon & Company, one of the 
most important real estate broker firms in Chicago. 

He married, October 20, 1891, Josephine Poole 
Giles, at Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. Their children, 
all of whom were born in Chicago, are: William 
Stewart, born November 7, 1893; Andrew Haswell, 
born May 10, 1896; Lucretia Poole, born June 19, 
1899. 

(VIII) Samuel Martin Green, son of Martm 
Green (7). was born at Benton Harbor, Michigan, 
April 13. 1864. He was graduated at the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute. His first position was with 
Frederick E. Reed, the manufacturer of machinery, 
Worcester. Massachusetts, for whom he designed 
and draughted various tools. He also designed the 
interlocking switches on the railroad viaduct in Wor- 
cester. He next went to Bufifalo to work for Noyes 
& Company, millers. When his brother, William 
Ogden Green, left the Merrick Thread Company, 
where he was the engineer in charge of the plant, 
the mana.gement desired him to remain, but took 
the younger brother in his place on his recommenda- 
tion. Although young and inexperienced Samuel 
Green made good. He successfully completed the 



big mill, one hundred and twenty-five by five hun- 
dred feet. He remained with the Merrick Thread 
Company until the trust was formed, when he was 
chosen engineer-in-chief for the new management, 
the American Thread Company. He has charge of 
all the changes and new construction of the com- 
pany. At the present time, at Ilion, New York, 
he is reconstructing and building a two million dollar 
plant, and the old mills are all receiving modern 
equipment of machinery and power. He has recently 
constructed at Waukegan, Illinois, a large factory 
for the United States Envelope Company. His chief 
office is at Holyoke, Massachusetts, and his residence 
is at Springfield, Massachusetts. He is at present 
rebuilding the cartridge factory at Bridgeport, Con- 
necticut. He is a member of the American Society 
of Mechanical Engineers. 

He married, at Holyoke, June 18, 1890, Ida Mc- 
Kown. of that city. Their children are: Mildred, 
born September 27, 1895, in Holyoke; Lydia, born 
June 2, 1902, in Holyoke. 

HENRY F. HARRIS. From the best obtain- 
able evidence, which includes recorded data, it is 
certain that the Harris family, as represented in 
Worcester, Massachusetts, is descended from 
Thomas Harris, who came with his brother William 
and Roger Williams in the ship "Lion" from Bristol, 
England, to Lynn, Massachusetts, as early as 1630. 
The line of descent is traced as follows : 

(I) Thomas Harris married Elizabeth , 

and they were the parents of Thomas. Mary and 
Martha. As a friend and follower of Roger Will- 
iams he was imprisoned and otherwise illtreated in 
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1658. 

(II) Thomas Harris, son of Thomas the emi- 
grant, married Elnactrau Tew, and they were the 
parents of eight children. 

(III) Thomas Harris, son of Thomas (2), was 
born in 1665 and died in 1741. He married Phoebe 
Brown, and they were the parents of eight chil- 
dren. 

(IV) Charles Harris, son of Thomas (3) and 
Phoebe (Brown) Harris, was born in 1709. He 
married Mary Hopkins, March 19, 1748, at North 
Scituate, Rhode Island, and they were the parents 
of ten children. 

(V) Gideon Harris, son of Charles. (4), and Mary 
(Hopkins) Harris, married Rhoda Smith, widow 
of his brother Henry, and of this marriage seven 
children were born. 

(VI) Henry Harris, son of Gideon (s) and 
Rhoda (Smith) Harris, was born August 2, 1787. 
He married Bernice Randall, and (second) Waty 
Smith. Of his second marriage were born the fol- 
lowing children: i. Alsaide. 2. Linus Monroe. 3. 
Gideon. 4. Mary Smith. 5. Charles Morris, see 
forward. 6. Thomas Henry. 7. Otis Braddock. 
8. Whipple Burlingame. Gideon and Otis B. passed 
away prior to 1889; Mary S., widow of Alfred 
Whiting, died in Worcester in the spring of 1904 ; 
Thomas H. resides at Canada Mills. Holden, Massa- 
chusetts : Whipple B. resides in Three Rivers. Pal- 
mer. Massachusetts. The father of this family died 
at "the age of thirty years, leaving his family with- 
out means. His wife was a remarkable type of true 
New England womanhood, possessing a strong niind 
and noble character, and gave to her children an 
excellent rearing. 

(VII) Charles Morris Harris, fifth child and 
third son of Henry (6) and Waty (Smith) Harris, 
was born in Providence. Rhode Island, August 3, 
T822. Through his mother he was a grandson of 
Captain Jonathan Smith, of Revolutionary fame, 
who, tradition says, stood fully six feet in height, 



36 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



and commanded a company each of whom was of 
that or greater stature. Mr. Harris was also a de- 
scendant of that John Smith, of Dorchester, who was 
banished for his divers dangeroi:s opinions, and who 
removed from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to 
Rhode Island at the request of Roger Williams, who 
wanted him as a miller, and he was ever afterward 
known as "Smith the miller." 

Shortly after his birth, the parents of Charles 
Morris Harris removed to Scituate, Rhode Island, 
where he w-as reared. Until he was thirteen years 
old he attended the common schools for eight weeks 
in summer and a like term in winter, and later at- 
tended two short winter terms, completing his school- 
ing when he was fifteen years old. From the age 
of six to fourteen years his time out of school was 
given to labor in the Richmond cotton mills, twelve 
to fourteen hours daily, at the pitiful wage of one 
cent an hour. One dollar and a quartt- a week was 
the highest wages he received until he was almost 
of age, when he was paid six dollars and ti'y cents 
a week. During this period he had gone from the 
Richmond mills to the Sprague mills at Smithfield, 
Rhode Island, thence to the Blackstone mills at 
Mendon. Washington, and to Woonsocket, Rhode 
Island, and was thoroughly and practically con- 
versant with every detail of the cotton milling in- 
dustry, capable of conducting every process from 
the handling of the raw material to the final finish- 
ing of the product. 

In the spring of 1842, when he was twenty-two 
years old, he engaged in thread manufacturing on 
his own account, in partnership with David S. 
Wilder. In the autumn of the same year they re- 
moved to West Boylston and purchased a small 
mill at Central Village, where they began the manu- 
facture of satinet warps. They also leased a mill 
at Lovellville. in the Town of Holden, which they 
also operated in connection with that -at Central 
Village. In 1843 he became associated in a business 
partnership with his brothers, Linus M. and Gideon, 
and a brother-in-law, Alfred Whiting, who had 
bought the Holt mill, at what was then called Holt's 
Village, but later Harrisville. Under the firm name 
of L. M. Harris & Co. they engaged in the manu- 
facture of cotton cloth, and built up a thriving 
business. The factory was destroyed by fire about 
1851, but rebuilding was begun within thirty days 
after the disaster, and in less than a year the new 
factory was in successful operation and with in- 
creased capacity. In 1857 ^Ir. Harris bought an 
interest in a cotton mill at Poquonnock, Connecti- 
cut. His beginning was inauspicious. The first 
year he lost si.x thousand dollars, but he only re- 
doubled his effort, and with such success that two 
years later he had made good his loss and was 
worth twelve thousand dollars more in addition. 
Early in i860 he sold his Connecticut interests and 
bought an interest in a factory at Savage, Howard 
county, Maryland, where he remained nearly two 
years. In the fall of i86r he returned tO' the factory 
of L. M. Harris & Co., remaining until 186,^. In 
that year he and his brother, Linus M. Harris, 
bought one-half of the stock of the West Boylston 
Manufacturing Company at Oakdale. This was tl»en. 
as it is to-day, one of the most important manufac- 
turing institutions in the state. In 18x4 it received 
from the commonwealth of Massachusetts a special 
charter under which it was authorized to manu- 
facture "cotton and woolen clothes and fine wire," 
On coming into this corporation Mr. Harris became 
general manager and treasurer, and he served as 
such with such conspicuous ability for a period of 
twenty-six years, ending with his death, April 24. 
1889, in Boston. 



^Ir. Harris married Jiliss Emily Dean, on 
Thanksgiving Day, 1848. She was born in Sterling, 
Massachusetts, November 9, 1823, and at the time 
of her marriage was residing in West Boylston. 
She was a direct descendant of Thomas Dudley, 
second governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. 
To Mr. and jNIrs. Harris were born three children : 

I. Henry Francis, of whom further. 2. Charles 
Morris, Jr., for several years prior to his father's 
death superintendent of the West Boylston Manfg. 
Co. mills; he died November 10, 1892, aged 
forty-one years, leaving a widow, two sons and 
three daughters. 3. Emily Armilla, died March 

II, 1892, aged thirty-five years; she was twice 
married ; by her first husband, Lyman P. 
Goodell, she had one son, Roscoe Harris 
Goodell, now banker in Chicago and married to 
Helen Peabody, daughter of Frederick F. Peabody, 
of Evanston, Illinois; by her second husband, Alonzo 
R. Wells, she had a son, Ray Dean Wells. Mrs. 
Harris, the mother of these children, died August 
6; 1S92. 

(VIII) Henry Francis Harris, eldest child of 
Charles ^lorris (./) and Emily Dean Harris, was 
born in Harrisville, West Boylston, jNIassachusetts, 
August 19, 1849. He fitted for college in the Green 
Mountain Institute at South Woodstock, Vermont, 
in Worcester Academy and Lancaster Academy, at- 
tending the latter institution two years. In 1867 
he entered Tufts College, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1871 at the head of his class. He then 
entered the Harvard Law School, and after a six 
months' course further prosecuted his legal studies 
for about a year in the office of Hon. Hartley Will- 
iams, of Worcester. He subsequently entered the 
Boston University Law School, from which he was 
graduated in the first class from that institution in 
1873. He was for some time following in the 
office of John A. Loring, of Boston, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in that city in December, 1873. 
January i of the following year he entered upon 
a professional practice at Worcester. Aside from 
attending to the demands of a constantly increasing 
legal practice, he has been prominently interested in 
the manufacture of cotton goods, succeeding his 
father in 1889 as treasurer of the West Boylston 
Manufacturing Company, whose valuable plant, hav- 
ing been purchased by the Metropolitan Water Com- 
mission was relocated at Easthampton Massachu- 
setts, and doubled in size and capacity. He has 
served as such until the present time. He was also 
president of the L. M. Harris Manufacturing Com- 
pany. ^Ir. Harris is a member of the board of 
directors of the Worcester Trust Company, the Wor- 
cester Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and is solic- 
itor for that corporation. He was a director of the 
First National Insurance Company ; is a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees of the Worcester City 
Hospital ; and was a member of the school board, 
serving on various important committees of that 
body. Mr. Harris is a public-spirited gentleman, 
and among the various organizations w-ith which he 
is conspicuously associated is that of Free Masons. 
He is a man of sound judgment, a safe counsellor 
in matters public and private, and enjoys the confi- 
dence and respect of the community where he 
resides. 

May 17, 1883, Mr. Harris married Emma Frances 
Dearborn, daughter of William F. and Mary J. 
(Hurd) Dearborn, of Worcester. She is a lady of 
culture and an accomplished musician. She gradu- 
ated from the Worcester High School in 1878, and 
subsequently studied vocal music under Madam 
Capianna. Possessor of a sweet and cultivated 
voice, she was for many years a member of the 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Z7 



choir of ihc Universalist church, and its director 
during much of that time. 

Mr. and Mrs. Harris have two Hving children : 
Rachel, born December II, 1887; and Dorothy, born 
March 22, 1890. They lost an infant son by death. 

DEWEY FAMILY. From among the various 
branches of the Dewey family have cbme-many dis- 
tinguished celebrities, includmg the eminent Judge 
Francis H. Dewey, and the famous Admiral George 
Dewey, who attained fame at Manila Bay, in the 
Spanish-American war. The family is of royal de- 
scent, with coat-of-arms going back many genera- 
tions in England. In America all trace to the com- 
mon ancestor, 

(I) Thomas Dewey, who came to the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony from Sandwich, Kent, Eng- 
land, with Rev. John Warham and his little band 
of one luuidred and forty passengers, who formed a 
church before leaving England, and sailed in the 
"Mary and John," and became the lirst settlers at 
Dorchester, Massachusetts, arriving at Nantucket, 
May 30, 1630, a month earlier than the Winthrop 
colony. On June 6, the following Sunday after they 
arrived, services of gratitude and praise were held 
under the open sky. After being a pioneer in that 
section, the church and the above emigrants mostly 
removed to Windsor, Connecticut. Thomas Dewey 
married the widow of Joseph Clark and had five 
children : I. Thomas, born 1640. 2. Josiah, born 
1641 ; he was the Dewey from whom descended Ad- 
miral George Dewey. 3. Ann, born 1643. 4. Israel, 
born 1645. 5. Jedediah, born 1647. 

(II) Jedediah Dewey, son of Thomas, the emi- 
grant, born 1647, and died 1721. 

(III) James Dewey, fifth son of Jedediah, born 
1692, and died 1756. 

(IV) Daniel Dewey, son of Stephen, had a son 
Daniel, who became judge. 

(VI) Judge Daniel Dewey, son of Daniel, was 
born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, and moved to 
Williamstown. He was a distinguished man of his 
day, was a lawyer of note, and for many years a 
judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and 
was also a member of congress. 

(VII) Judge Charles Augustus Dewey, son of 
Judge Daniel Dewey, was born March 13, 1793, in 
Williamstown, Massachusetts, died in 1866. He 
became a lawyer, was elected district attorney, and 
was appointed judge of the supreme court of Massa- 
chusetts, in which important position he served for 
the long period of thirty years. He married first, 
Frances Aurelia, daughter of Hon. Samuel and 
Martha (Hunt) Henshaw, of Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts. She died at Williamstown July 20, 1821. 
He married second, July 28, 1824, Caroline Hannah 
Clinton, daughter of General James and Mary (Lit- 
tle) Clinton, of Newburg, New York, and a sister 
of Gov. De Witt Clinton, of New York. Among 
the eight children born to Judge Dewey, Sr., w"ere 
Francis H., Charles A., Mary Clinton, wife of 
Judge H. B. Staples, of Worcester, and Maria 
Noble, of Worcester. . 

(VIII) Francis Henshaw, oldest son of Judge 
Charles Augustus and Frances A. (Henshaw) 
Dewey, was born in Williamstown, July 12, 1821. 
His career in public and professional life was so 
brilliant that the outline of it must be here preserved 
as an important part of the family history. His 
mother died when he was an infant, but he was 
tenderly cared for by his stepmother, Caroline H. 
Clinton, who married his father when he was three 
years old. Francis H. Dewey graduated from Will- 
iams College in 1840, at the early age of nineteen 
years, studied law at Yale and Harvard, and was 



admitted to the bar at Worcester in 1843. He soon 
became the partner of Hon. Emory Washburn, who 
was made justice of the common pleas bench the 
following year, and from that time the legal business 
of the office was thrown upon Mr. Dewey, who had 
a very large practice. For more than twenty years 
he was recognized as the leader of the bar in Wor- 
cester county. While not elegant in diction he was 
possessed of what all termed "common sense," and 
dealt practically and energetically with wdiatevcr 
matters were entrusted to him. He was very suc- 
cessful in the conduct of cases before juries. He 
was appointed to the bench of the supreme court 
in February, 1869, and resigned in 1881. 

Judge Dewey came to Worcester when the in- 
habitants numbered only eight thousand, and he 
lived to see this number multiplied ten times over. 
He was active in all public offices, church matters 
and charitable enterprises. He seemed born for 
diplomacy, and was the embodiment of tact and 
skill, combining with these qualities the abilities of 
the thoroughly equipped and entirely practical man 
of affairs. He-was a leading spirit in the organiza- 
tion of various railroad companies and manufac- 
turing and financial corporations, and was an of- 
ficial in and counsel for many of the same. Up to 
the time of his death he was president of the Nor- 
wich & Worcester Railroad, president of the Me- 
chanics' Saving Bank, a director in the Mechanics' 
National Bank, and a director and one of the 
heaviest stockholders in the Washburn & Moen Man- 
ufacturing Company, attending to a great amount of 
its legal business. He was deeply interested in edu- 
cational and the higher moral concerns of the com- 
munity. He was a trustee of his alma mater, Will- 
iams College, from 1869 to the time of his death, 
a period of eighteen years. He was also until his 
death president of the board of trustees of the Wor- 
cester Public Library, president of the board of 
trustees of the Old Men's Home, a trustee of the 
Washburn Memorial Hospital, president of the 
Rural Cemetery Corporation, president of the Wor- 
cester County Horticultural Society, and a trustee 
of the Young Men's Christian Association. He was 
inclined to business more than office holding, but 
at the request of friends in his party he served in 
the two branches of the city government, and two 
terms in the state senate. He died in the full vigor 
of his manhood, December 16, 1887, while devoting 
his strength to the many public interests with 
which he was connected. 

Judge Dewey married, November 2, 1846, Frances 
Amelia Clarke, only daughter of John and Prudence 
(Graves) Clarke, of Northampton, Massachusetts. 
Her father was the founder of Clarke Institution 
for Deaf Mutes. Judge Dewey married (second; 
April 26, 1853, Sarah Barker Tufts, only daughter 
of Hon. George A. and Azuba Boyden (Fales) 
Tufts; she was born January 31, 1825, at Dudley, 
Massachusetts, and is now (April, 1905) living in 
Worcester. By his first marriage Judge Dewey had 
a daughter, Fannie, born September 17, 1849, died 
the following day. His children by his second wife 
were: i. Fanny Clarke, born February i, 1854, died 
July 28, same year. 2, Caroline Clinton, born Decem- 
ber 18, 1854; died December, 1878; married, 1877, 
Charles L. Nichols, and had Caroline Dewey. 3. 
Francis Henshaw, to be further" mentioned. 4. John 
Clarke, born May 19, 1857, who is a lawyer. He 
married his second cousin, Sarah B. Dewey, and 
their children are John Clarke, Jr., and Daniel. 5. 
George Tufts, born September 12, 1858, who is a 
lawyer ; he married Mary L. Nichols, and their chil- 
dren are Mary Linwood, George Tufts, Jr., and 
Charles Nichols. 6. Sarah Frances, born September 



38 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



15, i860; died; married Oliver Hurd Everett, and 
their children were Caroline Dewey and Francis 
Dewey. 7. Charles Augustus, born and died April, 
1863. 

(IX) Francis Henshaw Dewey, son of Hon. 
Francis H. and Sarah B. (Tufts) Dewey, was born 
March 23, 1856, in Worcester, Massachusetts. He 
was reared in his native city and there attended the 
private schools, after which he spent two years at a 
primary school and four years at St. iMark's School 
in Southborough, preparatory for college. In 1872 
he entered Williams College, graduating therefrom 
four years later among the six highest of his class. 
He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 
where membership is based on scholarship. In 1S79 
he received the degree of Master of Arts from his 
alma mater. After reading law in the office of 
Messrs. Staples and Goulding, of Worcester, he en- 
tered Harvard Law School, from which he gradu- 
ated in 1878 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. 
In February, 1879, he was admitted to the bar, and 
has since been actively engaged in practice, and his 
prominence in his profession is attested by his 
election in 1897 to the vice-presidency of the Wor- 
cester County Bar Association. In 1880 he became 
solicitor for the Worcester Mechanics' Savings 
Bank and the Mechanics' National Bank, and on the 
death of his honored father, in 1887, he succeeded 
him as a trustee and director in these institutions, 
respectively. In April, 1888, he was elected presi- 
dent of the Mechanics, National Bank, which office 
he still holds. One of his most important trusts is 
the presidency of the Worcester Consolidated Street 
Railway Company, to which he was elected in Jilay, 
1898, having been a director since 1893, and under 
his supervision and management a system of about 
forty miles of track confined principally to the city 
of Worcester has been extended to one hundred and 
sixty miles, and connects eighteen cities and towns, 
together with frequent service, carrying nearly 
thirty millions of passengers in a year. For many 
years he has been a director in the Norwich & Wor- 
cester Railroad Company, the Worcester Gas Light 
Company, the Worcester Traction Company, the 
Worcester Theatre Association, of which he is also 
treasurer ; he is president and treasurer of the Bay 
State House, and a director in many business cor- 
porations. He is a trustee of the Worcester Rail- 
ways and Investment Company. He has also had 
charge of the settlement of many large estates in 
the capacity of trustee and executor, and possesses 
unusual business qualifications. 

Mr. Dewey has ever taken a deep interest in edu- 
cational and charitable work, and is actively 
identified with many of the most important 
institutions in these lines. He is a trustee 
and vice-president of Clark University, and of 
Clark College, and has long been vice-presi- 
dent of the Art IMuseum, and a member of 
the American Antiquarian Society. He is a di- 
rector of the Associated Charities, chairman of the 
Commission of City Hospital Funds, and a trustee 
of the Memorial Hospital. He is a member of the 
Board of Trade, of which he was for several years 
a director ; vice-president of the Massachusetts 
Street Railway Association ; and a member of the 
Worcester Fire Society and many social organiza- 
tions. For many yfars he has been prominent in 
the First Unitarian Parish, and has been superin- 
tendent of the Sunday school and chairman of the 
parish committee. He is a stanch Republican in 
politics. 

December 12, 1878, Mr. Dewey married Miss 
Lizzie Davis, daughter of the late Harrison Bliss, 
and of this union were born two children : Eliza- 



beth Bliss Dewey, July ig, 1883; and Francis Hen- 
shaw Dewey, May 19, 1887. 

EDWIN BROWN. John Brown (i), or 
Browne, the progenitor of Edwin Brown, of Wor- 
cester, was associated with the Pilgrims at Plymouth. 
While he was travelhng in his youth he became ac- 
quainted with 'Rev. John Robinson, pastor of the 
Pilgrims, and through him met many of his people 
in the same way that Governor Winslow and Cap- 
tain Miles Standish came to join the Pilgrims. He 
did not come in the "Mayflower," however. It was 
not until March, 1629, that he reached New Eng- 
land. He landed at Salem. Two years earlier, how- 
ever, March 19, 1627, the council for New England 
approved a patent for trade soil and planting on 
which a Royal charter was obtained March 4, 1628, 
to certain patentees and their associates, among 
whom were John Browne, John Saltonstall, and 
others who became well known in the colonies. He 
was elected to Governor John Endicott's council, 
April 3, 1629, with Francis Higginson, Samuel Skel- 
ton, Francis Bright, Samuel Browne, Thomas 
Graves and Samuel Sharp. He went from Salem 
to Plymouth and later to Taunton with his son, 
James. In 1643 John Brown and his sons, John and 
James, were residents of Taunton, but next year 
they settled at Rehoboth, Massachusetts. There 
John Browne, Sr., and John Brown, Jr., stayed 
and were among the first settlers, but James Browne 
being a Baptist was forced to leave town in 1663 
and with others of his sect founded the town of 
Swansey, Massachusetts. The designation Mr. 
given him in the records always shows that he was 
counted among the gentry. His sons and grandsons 
were leaders in civic, judicial and military affairs. 
John Brown was appointed one of the townsmen 
(an office) in Rehoboth, ^larch 16, 1645, and again 
in 1650-51. He served the town on important com- 
missions. He was on the prudential committee. He 
was for seventeen years from 1636 to 1653 one of 
the governor's assistants or magistrates. In 1638 
the following were the governor's assistants ; Will- 
iam Bradford, Edward Winslow, Captain Miles 
Standish, John Alden, John Jenny and John Browne. 
He was one of the commissioners of the United 
Colonies of New England (which foreshadowed the 
later confederation) from 1644 to 1655. In the gov- 
ernor's court June 4, 1652, he won a notable suit 
for damages for defamation against Samuel New- 
man, the judgment being for one hundred pounds 
and costs. Mr. Browne waived the judgment, how- 
ever, and let Newman off on payment of the costs. 
Mr. Browne was a friend of JNIassasoit, and the 
proof of their friendship was shown when the life 
of his son James was spared by King Philip, son of 
Massasoit, when he came on a mission from the gov- 
ernor to the Indians. Colonel Church in his 
narrative says : "that the Indians would have killed 
Mr. Browne, who with Mr. Samuel Gorton and two 
other men bore the letter, but Philip prevented 
them, saying that his father had charged him to 
show kindness to i\Ir. Browne." It is said in his 
honor that he was the first magistrate to raise his 
voice against the coercive support of the ministry, 
taking the stand that all church support should be 
voluntary and backed his precepts by liberal ex- 
ample. He was a man of abilities, intellect, piety 
and patriotism, and was buried with civic and mili- 
tary honors in 1662. His wife Dorothy died in 
1674. His eldest son died the same year as he 
(1662). His other son, James, was afterwards in 
the magistracy. His grandson, John Browne, be- 
came useful and eminent. In 16S5 John Browne 
was one of the first associate justices of the court 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



39 



of common pleas in the county of Bristol. In 
1699, during the administration of Lord Bellamont, 
he was again appointed a justice. John Browne, 
Sr., was born in 1505 and died April 10, 1662. His 
wife died at Swansey, Massachusetts, January 
27, 1673. ilie children of John Browne (l) 
were: Ensign John, Jr., born in England, 
died last of March, 1662; (settled in Reho- 
both and had these children : John, born last Fri- 
day in September, 1650; Lydia, August 5 or 6, 1656; 
Annah, January 29, 1657; Joseph, April 9, 1658; 
Nathaniel, June 9, 1661 ; Major James, of Swansey, 
born in England 1623, died 1710; Mary, born in 
England, married, July 6, 1636, Captain Thomas 
Willett, of Plymouth, the first English mayor of 
New York city, who was twice elected to that of- 
tice. William, resided in Salem, not mentioned in 
will and not proved to be son of John Browne (I). 

(.11) Major James Brown, son of John Browne 
(l), born in England in 1623, was in Taunton in 
1643 with his father, the assistant, and went with 
him to Swansea, Massachusetts. He was said to be 
a Baptist and preacher. He was chosen an assist- 
ant in 1665. He married Lydia Howland, daughter 
of John Howland, who came over in the "May- 
flower," and all his descendants are likewise de- 
scended from Mayflower ancestry. He died October 
29, 1710, aged eighty-seven years. Their children 
were : James, born at Rehoboth, INIassachusetts, 
May 4, 1655, died at Barrington, Rhode Island, 
1725 ; Dorothy, born at Swansey, Massachusetts, 

August 29, 1666, married Kent; Jabez, 

born July 9, 1668, at Swansey, Massachusetts. 

(HI) James Brown, son of Major James Brown 
(2), born at Rehoboth, May 4, 1655 (or May 21), 
died April 15, 1718, aged fifty-nine years, (probably 
should be si.xty-two) ; married Margaret Denison, 
June 5, 167S. She died May S, 1741, aged eighty- 
four years. He was a sergeant in the militia. All 
his children were born in Swansey. They were, as 
recorded : Lydia, born January 23, 1678-9, died Fsb. 
ruary I, 1678-9; Mary. September II, 1680; Mar- 
garet (given by Savage), June 28, 1682; Lydia, July 
28, 1684 ; James, September 7, 1685 ; Alary, July 5, 
1687 ; Peleg. February 28, 1688 ; William, June 2, 
1690; Dorothy, May 7, 1694. 

(IV) William Brown, son of James Brown (3), 
was born June 2, 1690. He married (first) Eliza- 
beth - — -, about 1710. She died April 27, 1725, 

aged twenty-seven years. He married (second) 
Rebecca Follett, October 27, 1725. He died Feb- 
ruary 26, 1731-2. He settled at Rehoboth, where all 
his children are recorded except William. As the 
records clearly show that the son is William, Jr., he 
must be the eldest son of William, there being no 
other William at Rehoboth or Swansey at the time. 
The children of William Brown were: Will- 
iam, born about 1710; Consider, September 8, 1711; 
Amos, May 28, 1714; Elizabeth, June 14, 1716; 
Bethiah, July 8, 1718; Jerusha, August 27, 1720; 
Ezra, August 18, 1722; Rebecca, April 17, 1725; 
Noah, August 7, 1726; Isaac, August 24, 1728; Ann, 
March 13, 1729, died October 27, 1731 ; Ann, Jan- 
uary 8, 1 73 1 -2. 

(V) William Brown, son of William Brown (4), 
was born about 1710 at Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He 
married at Rehoboth, Ruth Walker, October 10, 
1728. The births of their eleven children are all 
recorded at Rehoboth. He was commissioned a 
cavalry oiificer. Ruth Walker was born December 2, 
1710, and died March 6, 1790. She was descended 
from Widow Walker, one of the original settlers 
of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Widow Walker was 
born about 1620. Her son. Philip Walker, married 

in 1654 Jane , and died in 1679, leaving sons, 

Samuel, and Philip Walker. 



Samuel Walker, son of Philip Walker (2), was 
born 165s, died 1712. He served in King Philip's 
war under Major Bradford. He married Martha 
Ide (born 1654, died 1700), daughter of Nicholas 
Ide, who also served in King Philip's war under 
Major Bradford. His son, Samuel Walker (4), 
was born in 1682 and died in 1712. He married 
Ruth Bliss, who was born 1687. Their daughter, 
Ruth Walker (born December 2, 1710, died March 
6, 1790), married William Brown, Jr., as already 
stated October 10, 1728. William Brown, Jr., settled 
at Rehoboth. Their children were : Ruth, born Sep- 
tember ID, 1729; Lucy, October 26, 1731 ; Sarah, 
November 6, 1733 ; William, November 22, 1735 ; 
Sarah, December 4, 1737; Samuel, March 25, 1740; 
Molly, April 18, 1742; John, July 10, 1745; Deb- 
orah, August 29, 1747; Chloe, October i, 1749; 
Huldah, December 4, 1751. 

(VI) Lieutenant Samuel Brown, son of William 
Brown, Jr. (5), was born at Rehoboth, Massachu- 
setts, March 25, 1740. He married (first) Esther 
Bucklin, January 5, 1764. She died about 1777. He 
married (second) Polly Luther, of Warren, August 
23, 1778. She died in 1782. He married (third) 
Huldah Hunt, January 16, 1783. 

The children of Samuel Brown (6) were : Sam- 
uel, born March 2, 1765, married Polly Brown, 
March 11, 1801 ; Josiah, October 18, 1767; Lucy, 
October 20, 1770; Esther, October 16 1772; Mollie 
(probably a twin of preceding), October 16, 1772 
(1774 on records, obviously an error) ; Theophilus, 
April 9, 1774; Abigail, February 12, 1780; Eliza- 
beth, October 22, 1781 ; Luther, July 21, 1782; Jo- 
seph, March 2, 1787; Ira, January 15, 1791 ; Peter 
Hunt, January 13, 1793. 

(VII) Samuel Brown, son of Samuel Brown 
(6), born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, • March 2, 
176s, died in 1820. He married Ada Hardy, died 
1847, daughter of Samuel and Betsey (Walker) 
Healy, of Seekonk. Betsey Walker was born in 
1753 and died in 1839, daughter of Nathaniel Walker, 
of North Providence (born 1703, died 1783), vvho 
married, 1727, Anna Sweeting (born 1707, died 
1772). Nathaniel Walker was son of Philip Walker 
(born 1661, died 1739), who married Sarah Bowen 
daughter of William Bowen (born 1671, died 1739). 
This Philip Walker was son of Philip and grand- 
son of Widow Walker, already mentioned in this 
sketch. Samuel Brown settled at Rehoboth. Chil- 
dren of Samuel and Ada (Healy) Brown: I. Will- 
iam, born August 19, 1797, married Louisa Glad- 
ding, of Providence. 2. Mary (on Rehoboth records) 
born. March 17, 1801. 3. Albert, born (date given 
in Rehoboth records) March 20, 1804. 4. Elizabeth 
Walker, (record from her grandson, Appleton L. 
Clark) born September, 1813, died November, 1891, 
married Appleton Purdy Lesure (born May 13, 
1814, died August 4, 1863). 5- Abby, married A. R. 
Marsh, resided in Boston (birth not recorded at 
Rehoboth). 6. Theophilus, born September 12, 1811, 
married Sarah Ann Knowlton. 

(VIII) Albert Brown, son of Samuel Brown 
(7), born at Seekonk, Massachusetts, March 20, 
1804, married, 1828, Mary Blair Eaton. _ (See Eaton 
Family, also Rice Family). Mary Blair Eaton was 
a descendant of Adonijah Rice, the first white child 
born in Worcester. Albert Brown learned the 
tailor's trade and located first in Providence. He 
came to Worcester about 1825 and opened an "Em- 
porium of Fashion" as he called his shop, on Main 
street, opposite Central street. He took into part- 
nership his brother William Brown, and under the 
firm name of W. & A. Brown they were the first mer- 
chant tailors located in Worcester. At the death of Al- 
bert Brown, September 29, 1854, the surviving part- 
ner took his brother Theophilus Brown into the 



40 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



firm, and at present the firm is conducted by W. T. 
Brown, son of Theophilus. Albert Brown was a 
well known citizen of Worcester. He represented 
his ward in the common council. He went to 
England with the Peace Commission, and his de- 
scendants treasure a Bible given to him by Richard 
Cobden, with whom he formed an acquaintance 
there. He was to some extent an owner of shipping. 
He was a member of the Mutual Fire Society of 
Worcester. Children of Albert and Mary Blair 
(Eaton) Brown: i. Albert Samuel, born Worces- 
ter, February 22, 1829, of whom later ; 2. Henry 
William, born Worcester June 21, 1831 ; married 
Harriet B. Rathbone. 3. James Stewart, born Jan- 
uary 12, 1834, of whom later. 4. Mary Eaton, born 
April IS, 183s, died April 29, 1843. 5- James Stew- 
art, born September 12, 1837 ; married first, Fanny 
Emma Childs of Worcester; married (second) Eliza- 
beth Johonnot ; is treasurer of the Worcester Five 
Cents Savings Bank; veteran of the civil war; 
prominent in business and financial circles in Wor- 
cester. 6. Sarah Dean, born in Worcester, Feb- 
ruary 13, 1840, married George Wilson Ryerson, of 
New York. 7. Emily, born January 24, 1842, married 
John Stanton Baldwin, formerly editor and pub- 
lisher of U'orccstcr Daily Spy. (See sketch Bald- 
win Family). 8. Edwin, born in Worcester, March 
24, 1844, married, June 12, 1872, Mariana Mifflin 
Earle, daughter of Timothy K. and Nancy 
(Hacker) Earle of Worcester. 9. Charles Eaton, 
born January 23, 1847. 10. Mary Louisa, born June 
I, 1849; married Stephen C. Earle, the well known 
architect of Worcester. 11. Ada, bprn September 
29, 1852, died February 3, 1869. 

(IX) Albert Samuel Brown, son of Albert 
Brown (8), was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
February 22, 1829. He attended the public schools 
of his native town until he was sixteen years old, 
when he entered a wholesale woolen house in Bos- 
ton. After a short time he took a position in Colla- 
more's crockery store in Jioston. He finally re- 
turned to Worcester to enter business with his 
father in the store and tailor shop. In 1853 he made 
a trip to Europe, partly for business and partly for 
pleasure. When he returned home he worked for 
a time in a Worcester crockery store. In i860 he 
bought out J. P. Hale's crockery store and began 
business on his own account. The store was lo- 
cated at 181 Main street. He added wall 
paper to his line of goods and later moved to 284 
Main street. In 1880 he sold his store to E. G. 
Higgins, the wall paper dealer, whose business grew 
to be the largest of its kind in New England, Mr. 
Brown retired from active business life after selling 
his store. He loved travel and spent two years in 
Europe. He made his home in Worcester until his 
death, September 14, 1900. 

Mr. Brown stood well as a citizen and business 
man. He was highly esteemed for his manly char- 
acter and many good qualities. He was a member 
of the First Unitarian Church and later of the 
Church of the Unity and was a teacher in the Sun- 
day schooh In politics he was a Republican. He 
served the city in the common council. He was a 
member of no secret orders or military organi- 
zations. 

He married, November 28, i860. Ellen JM. Morse, 
daughter of Mason H. and Maria (Bigelow) 
Morse, of Worcester. Mason H. Morse was a car- 
penter and builder. He served on the building com- 
mittee when the Church of the Unity to which he 
belonged erected the present edifice on Elm street. 
Ellen M. Morse, as well as Mr. Brown, was a de- 
scendant of the first white child born in Worcester, 
She was born March 22, 1837. Maria Bigelow was 



the daughter of Lewis and Sophia Bigelow, and 
was born in Worcester, April l, 1815, and married 
May 24, 1836. (See sketch of Bigelow family). Mr. 
and Mrs. Brown had no children. Mrs. Brown re- 
sides at her home in Worcester, 21 Elm street. 

(IX) Henry William Brown, son of Albert 
Brown (8), born in Worcester, June 21, 1831, died 
February 21, 1900, at Daytona, Florida, where he 
was spending the winter. He married Harriet B. 
Rathbone, of Providence, Rhode Island. He grad- 
uated from Harvard College in 1852, and from 
Harvard Divinity School in 1857. He preferred 
teaching to the ministry, and from 1875 to 1896, 
a period of twenty-one years, was an instructor in 
the State Normal School of Worcester. His serv- 
ices in the school are best told by quoting the words 
of Principal E. Harlow Russell. 

" Coming to the school so soon after its beginning, he had 
much to do with shaping its policy and in establishing the depart- 
ment which he maintained with so much efficiency and distinction. 
A graduate of Harvard College and later of the Harvard Divinity 
School, in his early years he was a clergyman, but left that pro- 
fession for the more coneenial one of teaching. He may certain- 
ly be said to have given the best years of his life to the service of 
the Worcester school. He was always thoroughly in sympathy 
with the aims and purposes of itsadministration, loyal toils princ- 
ipal, appreciative of its excellencies, and considerate to a marked 
degree of its defects. With his fellow teachers his relations were 
most friendly They felt the strength that he brought to the 
faculty, and always regarded him with affectionate admiration. 
While not an ambitious man, as the word is ordinarily used, his 
standard of excellence was high, and he gave to his professional 
work the best that was in him. He was a ripe scholar, with a 
thorough command ot the classical languages and literatures, but 
he never ceased to be a diligent student, with a genuine taste for 
knowledge ot all sorts, in the lines of science as well as of litera* 
ture- His most conspicuous ssrvice to the cause of education 
was probably his translation from the German of Prof. Preyer's 
famous books, 'The Mind of the Child,' and Mental Develop- 
ment in the Child." Mr. Brown's intimate acquaintance with 
German, acquired during two periods of residence in Germany, 
together with his command of a clear, idiom itic English style, 
render these translations of the highest authority and value. The 
work was published by D, Appleton & Co.. New York, in their 
International Education Series, and the translation received the 
highest commendation from the editor of the series, Dr, William 
T, Harris. United States Commissioner of Education, 

" Mr. Brown was a man of unusual refinement, of lof'v ideals 
and of warm affections. These qualities, combined with his ample 
intellectual equipment, made him a teacher of rare breadth and 
power. The graduates of this school will bear unanimous testi- 
mony to tlie quality and permanence of the influence he exerted 
upon growing minds, an influence appreciated by them more and 
more with the lapse of time, .although his standard was high, his 
dealings with individual pupils were always felt to be just and 
humane, and in his classes there was no tyranny and no friction. 
It may be truly said that among the hundreds of young people 
who have come under his instruction here, there was not one who 
did net feel toward him not only profound respect but warm 
esteem. And his attachment to the graduates was shown by his 
manifest pleasure in meeting them on their visits to the school 
and Ills genial speeches to them at their annual reunions. The 
graduates have a permanent memorial of him which they grt^atly 
prize in the shape of a reunion song composed for them by him 
some years ago, and which is sung ye^rlv to the tuneof "Fair 
Harvard" at their annual gatherings. When Mr. Brown was in 
Worcester last autumn he was invited by a committee of graduates 
tositf ->r his porirait for the graduates' room of the school This 
he did. and the result, a large photograph by Notman, of Boston, 
proved a most satisfactory likeness and is now of priceless value. 
To the large body of graduates who for a score of years have en- 
ioyed Mr. Brown's instructions, as well as to the circle of his 
more intimate friends, the news of his death will come with a 
sense of personal loss" 

He had one son, Conway Rathbone, who died 
while a student and undergraduate at Harvard, at 
the age of twenty-three years. 

(IX) J, Stewart Brown, son of Albert Brown (8), 
was born in Worcester. Massachusetts. September 12, 
1837. He was educated in the public and high 
schools of Worcester, and began the active duties 
of life by entering the employ of Henry W. Miller, 
proprietor of a hardware store, with whom he re- • 
mained several years: later he established a house- 
furnishing business of his own which he continued 
until the breaking out of the civil w-ar. At that 
time he was' sergeant of the old Worcester Light 
Infantry, and was made sergeant of his company in 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



41 



the famous Sixth Massachusetts Regiment, which 
was nuistered out August 2, i86r, and which was 
attacked which marching through the streets of 
Baltimore to Washington, District of Columhia. In 
the fall of 1861 he went to the front with a com- 
mittee of relief, with between eleven and twelve 
hundred dollars contributed for the Worcester sol- 
diers. In November, 1862, he was commissioned 
adjutant of the Fifty-lirst Regiment, Massachusetts 
Infantry, participated in the battles of Kinston, 
Whitehall and Goldsboro, North Carolina, and was 
mustered out July 2, 1S63. Later he entered the 
commissary department with the Ninth Army Corps 
and remained until the close of the war, receiving his 
honorable discharge April 16, 1865. Upon his return 
to civil life Mr. Brown again entered the employ of 
Mr. Miller, remaining two years. He then engaged 
in business on his own account, manufacturing braid 
and shoe laces, and after conducting the same for 
four years disposed of the business in order to 
accept the office of water registrar of the city of 
Worcester, which he tilled to the satisfaction of the 
various administrations, and to the people of the 
city, until his resignation in 1883, when he ac- 
cepted the treasurership of the Worcester Five 
Cents Savings Bank, to which he had been elected. 
For nearly twenty-five years he has been the ex- 
ecutive head of this large and prosperous savings 
institution, which, judged from every standard, is 
one of the most successful of its kind in the city. 
It has shown a wonderful growth in the total de- 
posits and investments. He is a director of the Mer- 
chants' and Farmers' Fire Insurance Company, of 
Worcester, rendering faithful service in that capacity. 
Upon the organization of George H. Ward Post, 
No. 10, Grand Army of the Republic, he was ap- 
pointed the first adjutant, and he has been a constant 
and earnest worker for the best interests and welfare 
of the post ever since. He has also been an officer 
of his regimental association since its organization. 
In the war play, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh," 
which has been given for many years annually in 
the Worcester theatre, he took, for a number of 
years, the part of Frank Rutledge, and his achieve- 
ments in this part will never be forgotten by his 
comrades and those who attended the performances. 
The excellence of the cast originally had much to 
do with the perennial popularity oL this grand old 
war play in Worcester. The Grand Army of the 
Republic has netted a considerable income every year 
from the week's performances of the "The Drum- 
mer Boy," as it is commonly called. Mr. Brown is 
a member of the Unitarian church. In politics he 
is a Republican. 

He married (first), September 26, 1872, E. Fan- 
nie Childs, born at Hartford, Connecticut, April 29, 
1845, died in Worcester, Massachusetts, May 13, 
1894, daughter of Gardner and Fannie (Goulding) 
Childs, of Worcester. The children of this union 
were : Albert, born November 2. 1877, educated at 
the Worcester public and high schools, and a grad- 
uate of the American Academy of the Stage, which 
he attended for three years ; he has niade a very 
promising start in his first professional engagement 
on the stage. Helen Elizabeth, born in Worcester, 
July 21, 1886, attended the Worcester public schools, 
and was a graduate of the class of 1904 of Prospect 
hill school, at Greenfield, Massachusetts. He mar- 
ried (second), June 11, 1896, Harriet E. Johonnot, 
born September 3, 1848, at Boston, Massachusetts, 
daughter of Ambrose E. and Elizabeth (Gaffield) 
Johonnot, of Boston. 

(IX) Edwin Brown, son of Albert Brown (8), 
was born in Worcester, March 24, 1844. He at- 
tended the Worcester public schools, leaving the 
high school in i860 to accept a position in the City 



Bank, afterwards the City National Bank, absorbed 
in 1903 by the Worcester Trust Company. At the 
age of eighteen he enlisted in Company C, Fifty- 
first Regiment, and served in the campaigns in 
North Carolina and Maryland. He returned to 
Worcester with his regiment in 1863, and became 
book-keeper at the City Bank, but after two years 
was called to the Worcester National Bank, where 
he became teller, remaining in that position for one 
year, when he was called back to the City National 
Bank as teller and assistant cashier. He continued 
there until 1871, when he went into business with 
his father-in-law, Timothy K. Earle, becoming a 
member of the firm of T. K. Earle & Co., whose 
factory for the manufacture of machine card cloth- 
ing for cotton and woolen mills was located on 
Grafton street, Worcester. In 1S80 a stock com- 
pany was formed under the name of the T. K. 
Earle Manufacturing Company, with Mr. Brown as 
treasurer and mdnager. Mr. Earle died in 1881, and 
Mr. Brown continued the business for the com- 
pany until 1890. At that time there was a con- 
solidation of the various card clothing factories of 
the country under the name of the American Card 
Clothing Company. Mr. Brown was tre?isurer of 
the new corporation, and he held that position until 
1905, when the company was liquidated. 

Mr. Brown is a vice-president of the Worcester 
Five Cents Savings Bank. He was one of the 
founders of the Quinsigamond Boat Club in 1857, 
and in his younger days was the stroke oar of the 
crack crew of that club, which formerly held the 
championship of the lake, and which rowed on the 
Hudson river at Troy, New York, October 9, 1867, 
in the first national amateur regatta in the United 
States. Mr. Brown has always taken an interest 
in healthful athletics and sports. He was a charter 
member of the Worcester Club, and is a member 
of the old Worcester Fire Society, a veteran mem- 
ber of George H. Ward Post, 10, G. A. R. ; a life 
member of the Worcester County Mechanics Asso- 
ciation ; a member of the Worcester Natural History 
Society; the Worcester Society of Antiquity; the 
Tatnuck Country Club, and was formerly a member 
of the Commonwealth Club ; the Grafton Country 
Club ; and the Worcester County Musical Associ- 
ation. He is a Republican. He belongs to the First 
Unitarian Church. 

He married, June 12, 1872, Mariana Mifflin Earle, 
daughter of Timothy K. and Nancy (Hacker) Earle. 
Their children are: i. Earle, born in Worcester, 
August IS, 1873; graduated Harvard University 
1895 ; was in business two years ; went to Spanish- 
American war in the First Rhode Island Regiment; 
then went to Harvard Law School ; is practicing 
law in Worcester, 314 Main (Street. 2. Edwin 
Hacker, born Worcester, July 29, 1875 ; graduated 
Harvard University 1896, and at Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute 1898; is a mechanical engineer 
with the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company 
of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is now (1905) at 
Nome, Alaska, on his fourth trip as engineer for 
gold mining companies. 3. Caspar Mifflin, born m 
Worcester, October 13, 1878 ; graduated at Harvard 
University 1900; with Graton & Knight Manufac- 
turing Company of Worcester, and has had charge 
of their exhibits at St. Louis, Missouri, and Port- 
land (Oregon) Expositions; while in college he 
was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, presi- 
dent of the Varsity Banjo Club, and was on his 
class crews and football teams. 4. Lloyd Thornton, 
born August 20, 1880; graduated at Harvard Uni- 
versity 1903 ; now In Harvard Medical School ; was 
president of the Varsity Mandolin Club, and a mem- 
ber of the Hasty Pudding and other clubs while in 
college. 



42 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



(IX) Charles Eaton Brown, son of Albert Brown 
(8), was born in Worcester, January 23, 1847. He 
graduated from the Worcester High School in 
1863, and from the United States Naval Academy 
at Annapolis in 1867. He was one of the officers of 
the U. S. navy who were with the first embassy 
ever received at the court of the Tycoon of Japan, 
and, when Minister De Long was received, the 
Americans were entertained with barbaric splendor. 
The Tycoon had some selected executions of crim- 
inals, and even some crucifixions to entertain and 
honor his guests. The U. S. gunboat "Oneida," of 
which he was an officer, was sunk in the harbor of 
Yokohama, January 23, 1870, by the British steam- 
ship "Bombay," and one hundred and twenty of- 
ficers and men lost their lives. The body of Ensign 
Brown was recovered and brought home to Wor- 
cester for interment. He was unmarried. 

THE SPRAGUE FAMILY, descended from 
good old English stock, have an honorable history 
covering a period of nearly three hundred years 
in America. The late Hosea Sprague published in 
1828 a genalogy of the Spragues in Hingham to the 
fourth geiieration. He lived at Hingham, Massa- 
chusetts, and his personal knowledge of the family 
aided him in making a compilation of the records, 
and from it we glean many points invaluable in this 
connection. 

Edward Sprague, of England, was a resident of 
Upway, county of Dorset, where he died in 1614. 
He was a fuller by trade. He married Christiana 
(family name not given in the record)by whom he had 
six children : Ralph, Alice, Edward, Richard, Chris- 
topher, William. Ralph, Richard and William ar- 
rived at Naumkeag (Salem) in 1628, coming over in 
the interest of the Massachusetts Bay Company, who 
decreed that "none but honest and godly men should 
go over to settle." In "Prince's Chronologj'" we 
read : "Among those who arrived at Naumkeag are 
Ralph Sprague, with his brothers Richard and 
William, who with three or four more were by 
Governor Endicott employed to explore and take 
possession of the country westward. They traveled 
through the woods to Charlestown, on a neck of 
land called Mishawum, between Mystic and Charles 
rivers, full of Indians named Aberginians, with 
whom they made peace." Hon. Edward Everett in 
his address commemorative of the bi-centennial of the 
arrival of Winthrop at Charlestown, said: "Ralph, 
Richard and William Sprague are the founders of 
the settlement in this place, and were persons of 
substance and enterprise, excellent citizens, generous 
public benefactors, and the head of a very large and 
respectable family of descendants." 

Ralph Sprague was about twenty-five years of 
age when he came to this country. He had four 
sons, John, Richard, Samuel and Phineas, and a 
daughter Mary, who married Daniel Edmands 
on September 28, 1630. John and Richard were 
born in England. Ralph was one of a jury 
impaneled which seems to have been the first jury 
in Massachusetts. Ralph Sprague was a lieutenant 
in the train band. In 1631 Captain Richard Sprague 
commanded a company of the train band, and on 
Friday of each week exercised his command at a 
convenient place near the Indian wigwams. Feb- 
ruary 10, 1634, the famous order creating a board 
of selectmen was passed ; Richard and William 
Sprague signed the order. Richard Sprague left 
no posterity. His sword which is named in his 
brother William's will was preserved in one of the 
old Sprague houses in Hingham in 1828. 

(I) William Sprague, son of Edward, of Eng- 
land, was born in England. He married, 1635, 
Millesaint, daughter of Anthony Eames. She died 



February 8, 1696. He remained in Charlestown until 
1636. His wife was admitted into the church in 
Charlestown in 1635, and the eldest son was bap- 
tized there May, 1636. He came to Hingham in 
the same year in a boat which landed on the east 
side of the cove, on a tract afterward granted to 
him by the town, and became one of the first plant- 
ers, the name Bare Cove having been changed to 
Hingham, September 2, 1635. William Sprague's 
house lot was said to be the pleasantest m Hing- 
ham. Many parcels of land were granted to him 
from 1636 to 1647. These gifts show the esteem 
in which he was held by his fellow townsmen. Jan- 
uary 30, 164s, he was one of seven men chosen in 
town meeting to order the prudential affairs of the 
town. In 1662 he was disbursing officer for the 
town, and also constable and fence viewer, etc. Feb- 
ruary 21, 1673, he deeded to his son Anthony cer- 
tain lands for six and thirty pounds of lawful 
money of New England, and nine pounds in mer- 
chantable corn. He died October 26, 1675. The 
children of William and Millesaint Sprague were : 

1. Anthon)', born September 2, 1635, married Eliza- 
beth Bartlett, daughter of Robert Bartlett, of 
Plymouth. He was a large landowner of Hing- 
ham. His house was burned by Indians, April 
19, 1676. He died September 3, 1719. 2. John, 
baptized April, 1638, married Elizabeth Holbrook, 
December 13, 1666. Sprague Island was given to 
him by his father. He died in Mendon, 1690. 3. 
Samuel, baptized May 24, 1640. He removed to 
Marshfield, Massachusetts, where he became secre- 
tary of the colony and register of deeds before 
1692. He was the great-grandfather of Hon. Seth 
Sprague, of Duxbury. 4. Elizabeth, baptized May 

2, 1641. 5. Jonathan, baptized March 20, 1642, died 
July 4, 1647. 6. Perses, baptized November 12, 1643, 
married John Doggett. 7. Joanna, baptized Decem- 
ber, 1644, married Caleb Church, December 16, 
1667. 8. Jonathan, born May 28. 1648, moved to 
Providence, Rhode Island. 9. William, born May 
7, 1650, married Deborah Lane, daughter of Andrew 
Lane, December 13. 1674. At a later date he re- 
moved to Providence, Rhode Island. 10. Mary, bap- 
tized May 25, 1652, married Thomas King. 11. Han- 
nah, baptized February 26, 1655, died March 31, 
1658. 

(II) Jonathan Sprague, born in Hingham, May 
28, 1648, son of William (l), married Mehitabel, 
daughter of William and Elizabeth Holbrook, and 
in 1672 removed to Mendon, Massachusetts. In 
1675. his falher died and left to him sixty acres of land 
in Providence, Rhode Island, where he settled be- 
fore 1680.' He aided in surveying the eastern line 
of the colony. His was a strong, manly character. 
He was a member of the house of deputies for 
sixteen years between 1695 and 1714; speaker of the 
house, 1703 ; and member of the town council eight 
years from 1705 to 1712; clerk of the assembly in 
1707. In 1703, with two others, he was appointed 
to draw up the methods and proceedings of the 
court of common pleas. The "Annals of Provi- 
dence" says he was a decidedly religious man, pro- 
fessed the Baptist faith, and preached as an ex- 
horter. He died in 1741. The children of Jonathan 
and Mehitabel Sprague were: l. Jonathan, a resi- 
dent of Providence and Smithfield, Rhode Island, 
married Bethiah Mann, November 28, 1699. She 
was born March tj, 1683, and died April 6, 1712. 
For his second wife he married Hannah Hawkins, 
>widow of Stephen Hawkins. He died April 22, 
1764. 2. William, born February 2. 1691. w'as a resi- 
dent of Providence, and also of Smithfield, Rhode 
Island. Smithfield was set ofT from Providence and 
organized as a town in 1730. He died in Smith- 
field, 1768. He bore the rank of captain in the 




^, (^. ^, ^Q/rff^,iu^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



43 



second militia regiment of Providence in 1732. The 
"History of Woonsocket, Rhode Island," says : "For 
upwards of a century the Spragues were prominent 
actors in the religious and political history of old 
Smithfield." He deeded much land to one cause 
and another, and large tracts to his children. 3. 
Patience, married William Jenks, and they had ten 
children. 4. Joanna, married John Teft, who died 
in 1762. She died in 1757. They had eleven chil- 
dren. 5. Mary, married Daniel Brown, and they 
had six children. 6. A daughter whose name is 
unknown, married Ebenezer Cook. 

(.Ill) Captain William Sprague, son of Jon- 
athan (2), born 1691, married September 16, 1714, 
Ales Browne, who was born May 31, 1691. Their 
children were: i. Nehemiah, born January 5, 1717, 
married, 1738, Mary Brown. 2. Ales, born October 

2, 1720. 3. Sarah, born February 10, 1722, married 
William Sly. 4. Samuel, born September 12, 1724. 
5. Jetter, born September 19, 1726. 6. Joshua, born 
July 3, 1729, married Abigail Wilber. 

(.IV) Nehemiah Sprague, son of Captain Will- 
iam Sprague (3), married April 16, 173S, Mary 
Brown, and had Elias, born in Smithfield, Rhode 
Island, June 16, 1744; Nehemiah, born January 20, 
1750, who died there in June, 1796. These brothers 
were farmers, and members of the Society of 
Friends. 

(V) Elias Sprague, son of Nehemiah (4), was 
born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, June 16, 1744, and 
died in Douglass, Massachusetts, February 15, 1799. 
He married Mercy, daughter of Joseph Bassett, 
August 5, 1764; she was sister of Alice, who became 
the wife of Nehemiah (5). Elias moved to Doug- 
lass, Massachusetts, not later than 1788, at which 
date he deeded his homestead in Smithfield, Rhode 
Island, for three hundred and ninety pounds silver 
money. The children born to Elias and Mercy 
Sprague were : i. Jonathan, born December 9, 
1705. 2. Theodate, born January 4, 1768. 3. Amy, 
born October 6, 1769. 4. Benjamin, born April 10, 
1771. 5. Lavinia, born August 12, 1773. 6. Stephen, 
born November 18, 1775, married Olive Seagrave. 
7. Preserved, born October 17, 1777, married Joanna 
Trask. 8. Thankful, born October 19, 1779. 9. 
William, born June 3, 1782. 10. Alice, born August 

29, 1784. II. Elias, born . 12. Lucina, 

born . 13. Unnamed. 

(VI) Jonathan Sprague, son of Elias Sprague 
(5), born at Smithfield, Rhode Island, December 9, 
1765, was twice married. His first wife was Pa- 
tience, daughter of Robert Pixley (or Pidgeley), of 
New Grafton, Massachusetts. She was born in 
1765. They were married in Smithfield by Peleg 
Arnold, justice of the peace, August 12, 1785. Their 
children were: I. Sarah, born in Smithfield, Rhode 
Island, December 3, 1785. 2. Nehemiah, born 
in Smithfield, Rhode Island, June 17, 1787. 

3. Mercy, born in Douglas, Massachusetts, Janu- 
ary 17, 1789. 4. Federal Constitution, born 
in Douglas, Massachusetts, October 16, 1790. 

5. Amy. born in Douglas, October 14, 1792. 

6. Daniel, born in Douglas, August 4, 1794. 7. 
Preserved, born in Douglas, April 4, 1796, died in 
childhood. 8. Lee, born in Douglas, February 7, 
1798. 9. Patience, born in Douglas, March i, 1800. 
10. Jonathan, Jr., born in Douglas, October 6, 1801. 

The father, Jonathan Sprague, died in Thompson, 
Connecticut, October 29, 1815. Patience, his wife, 
died December 14, -1801. They were buried in the 
Friends' burying-ground at South Douglas, Massa- 
chusetts. Jonathan Sprague married (second) 
Kezia, daughter of Daniel and Kezia Torrey, of 
Sutton, Massachusetts. She was born there April 
19, 1770, and died in Douglas, Massachusetts, May 



10. 1844. Their children were: Almira, Philinda, 
Elias and Emcline. In all, Jonathan Sprague had 
ninety-seven grandchildren. 

(VII) Lee Sprague, son of Jonathan (6), and 
Patience Sprague, was born in Douglas, Massa- 
chusetts, February 7, 1798. He married (first) 
Olive How Williams, May 21, 1821, who was born 
in Pomfret, Connecticut, November 27, 1803. She 
died in Ware, Massachusetts, November 11, 1822. 
The second wife of Lee Sprague was Lucia Snow, 
born April 28, 1805, daughter of Deacon Eli Snow 
and Alice Alden, she being in the sixth generation 
from John Alden of the "Mayflower." The father 
of Lucia Snow was in the fifth generation from 
Nicholas Snow, who came to Plymouth in the ship 
"Ann," in 1623, and married Constance Hopkins, 
a "Mayflower" pilgrim. Lucia Snow was married 
in Ware, Massachusetts, to Lee Sprague, September 
8, 1824, and died in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
December 4, 1864. Lee Sprague married for his 
third wife Mary A. Bradley, born in 1808, married 
May 8, 1866, deceased. The children of Lee and 
Lucia Sprague were: I. Olive Williams, born in 
Ware, Massachusetts, June 12, 1825 ; died in East 
Douglas, Massachusetts, December 23, 1840. 2. 
Augustus B. R., born in Ware, Massachusetts, March 
7, 1827. 3. Caroline Florella, born in Ware, Massa- 
chusetts, July I, 1829; died in East Jaffrey, New 
Hampshire, August 7, 1863. 4. Francis Henry, born 
in Ware, Massachusetts, June 3, 1833 ; died April 
13, 1834. 5. William Wirt, born in Ware, Massa- 
chusetts, February 8, 1835 ; died August 20, 1837. in 
East Douglas. 6. William Lee, born in East Doug- 
las, Massachusetts, November 9, 1839; died Jan- 
uary 23, 1841. 

Lee Sprague, the father of these children, died 
in Worcester, Massachusetts, September 9, 1877. 

(VIII) Caroline Florella Sprague, daughter of 
Lee and Lucia Sprague, born in Ware, Massa- 
chusetts, July I, 1829, died in East Jaffrey, New 
Hampshire, August 7, 1863. She married Rev. 
Franklin D. Austin, at Worcester, Massachusetts, 
January, 1853. Their children were: I. Frank Lee, 
born in Tolland, Massachusetts, March 16, 1855; 
became a civil engineer, a graduate of Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute, 1877; died in April, 1897. 2. 
Flora Lucia, born in East Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 
December 27, 1857 ; graduated at Mt. Holyoke, 
Massachusetts ; died in St. Paul, Minnesota, January 
S, 1900. 3. Caroline Sprague, born in East Jaffrey, 
New Hampshire, July 29, 1863 ; graduated at 
Smith's College, Massachusetts. 

GENERAL AUGUSTUS BROWN REED 
SPRAGUE was born in Ware, Massachusetts, 
March 7, 1827, son of Lee and Lucia (Snow) 
Sprague. He is a lineal descendant in the seventh 
generation from William Sprague, who came from 
England in 1628 with Endicott in the interest of 
the Massachusetts Bay Company to prepare for a 
new colony. His maternal grandmother, Alice Al- 
den, was a descendant in the fifth generation from 
John Alden, and his grandfather, Eli Snow, in the 
same generation, from Constance Hopkins, another 
"Mayflower" pilgrim. 

General Sprague obtained his education in public 
and private schools in Ware and East Douglas, and 
was fitting for college when home circumstances 
compelled a change of plan, and in 1842 he came 
to Worcester. At first a clerk, he soon engaged in 
mercantile business for himself, and was so occupied 
from 1846 to 1861, when at the outbreak of the re- 
bellion he gave his services to his country. He was 
well prepared for the emergency, being already a 
well drilled soldier. He had joined the Worcester 



44 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Guards at the age of seventeen, and had served as 
private, non-commissioned and commissioned officer, 
as adjutant of tlie Eightli Regiment, and major and 
inspector on the staff of the commander of the 
Fifth Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Vol- 
unteer Militia, which latter position he was holding 
at the time of the attack upon Fort Sumter. Under 
the call of President Lincoln for the first seventy- 
five thousand men, Major Sprague was unanimously 
elected to the captaincy of the Worcester City 
Guards, designated as Company A, Third Rille Bat- 
talion, commanded by Major Charles Devens, Jr. 
This body left for the seat of war April 20, 1861. 
Early in July Major Devens was called to the com- 
mand of the Fifteenth Regiment Massachusetts Vol- 
unteers, and Captain Sprague, by virtue of seniority, 
commanded the battalion until its muster-out on 
August 3d, its term of service having expired. Upon 
his return home he at once identified himself with 
the organization of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, 
Massachusetts Volunteers, in which he was com- 
missioned lieutenant-colonel. On his solicitation sev- 
eral who had served with him in the Third Battalion 
were commissioned in this regiment, among them 
being !Major McCafferty, Adjutant Harkness, and 
Captains Pickett, Moulton, O'Neil and Atwood. Be- 
fore the regiment left its rendezvous for the front 
Colonel Sprague was presented with a magnificent 
sword and belt by the members of his old company. 
Later his Worcester friends presented him with a 
valuable horse and equipments, Hon. Alexander H. 
Bullock making the presentation address on behalf 
of the donors. Colonel Sprague served with his 
regiment until November 11, 1862, taking part in 
all the skirmishes and battles in which it participated, 
including the famous "Burnside Expedition," and 
he was officially commended by his superior officer 
"for bravery and efficiency in the battles of Roanoke 
Island and Newberne." He was promoted, on the 
date which marked his separation from the Twenty- 
fifth Regiment, to the colonelcy of the Fifty-first 
Massachusetts Regiment. By special request of Alajor 
General John G. Foster, the department commander. 
Colonel Sprague was ordered with his new regiment 
back to North Carolina, where he participated in the 
battles of Kinston, Whitehall and Goldsboro. The 
names of these engagements were subsequently by 
order of Major General Foster inscribed upon the 
regimental colors which had been presented by the 
ladies of Worcester. 

When General Lee led the Confederat army on 
the campaign which found its disastrous ending at 
historic Gettysburg, Colonel Sprague's regiment, 
with others, was ordered from Newberne to rein- 
force General John A. Dix at White House, on the 
Pamunky river, after which it returned to Fortress 
Monroe for transportation to Massachusetts, its term 
of service having expired. Learning, however, that 
the rebel army was yet north of the Potomac river. 
Colonel Sprague telegraphed to Edwin ]M. Stanton, 
Secretary of War, an offer of his regiment for fur- 
ther service. This patriotic proffer was gladly ac- 
cepted, and the regiment was ordered to lialtimore, 
and thence to the Army of the Potomac at Williams- 
port, Maryland, and only left the field when Lee's 
army was well out of reach on its retreat into Vir- 
ginia. The return of the Fifty-first Regiment to 
Worcester was a notable event in the history of the 
city, glad hearts, and the sorrowful ones as well, 
joining in the glad welcome to the returning heroes, 
and making a day long to be remembered. July 27 
the regiment was mustered out of service. 

Colonel Sprague, however, was not to remain 
long inactive. Soon after the disbandment of his 
regiment he was requested by Governor John A. 



Andrew to recruit and command the Fifty-seventh 
Regiment, but illness in his family constrained him 
to decline. Later he again offered his service to his 
state, and as there were then no new regiments being 
raised, he was oft'ered by Governor Andrew a com- 
mission as lieutenant-colonel in either one of two 
regiments then in the field — the Fourth Cavalry and 
the Second Heavy Artillery. His warm personal 
regard and soldierly admiration for a young man 
well remembered in Worcester county, Francis 
Washburn, who had made a brilliant record as a 
captain in the First Massachusetts Cavalry Regi- 
ment and was well deserving of promotion, moved 
him to decline the first of these oft'ers in favor of 
his friend, and he accepted the latter. He was com- 
missioned February i, 1864, and at once joined his 
regiment, with which he served in some of the 
most momentous campaigns which marked that stir- 
ring period. He commanded his regiment in its 
field service in southern Virginia and North Caro- 
lina, and formed a part of General Schofield's col- 
umn in its march to open up communication at 
Goldsboro, North Carolina, with the army of Major 
General William T. Sherman, which, having come 
thus far from Savannah after its "Iilarch to the 
Sea," was now moving against the confederate 
General Joseph E. Johnston. These operations, 
combined with those of General Ulysses S. Grant 
against the rebel army under Lee, worked the down- 
fall of the Confederacy, and soon afterward the 
regiment was sent to the mouth of Cape Fear river 
to dismantle Fort Fisher and repair Fort Caswell, 
and later assembled at Galloupe Island, in Boston 
Harbor, where it was discharged from service Sep- 
tember 20, 1865, previous to which he was commis- 
sioned colonel of the regiment. He was brevetted 
brigadier-general to date from March 13, 1865, "for 
gallant and meritorious services during the war." 
His entire service covered the long period of three 
j'ears and nine months, and ever received the 
warmest commendation of his superior officers. 

Returning to civil life. General Sprague was soon 
called to important civil service, which marked the 
beginning of a period of more than a quarter of 
a century of public life. In February, 1867, he was 
appointed collector of internal revenue of the Eighth 
Massachusetts District. On the death of Hon. J. 
S. C. Knowlton, sheriff of the county of Worcester, 
General Sprague was appointed his successor, in 
July, 1871, and he acquitted himself with such con- 
spicuous ability that he was elected to the posi- 
tion at the next election, and successively re-elected 
until his tenure of office was extended to six terms 
of three years each, continuing until January, 1890. 
Soon after entering upon his duties the Worcester 
prison was .greatly enlarged, and after its comple- 
tion General Sprague gave to all the details of prison 
management his close personal attention, entering 
upon a work which was justly regarded as a public 
benefit, and a pronounced advance in the improve- 
ment of modern prisons. He revised the entire 
system of accounts keeping, and introduced innova- 
tions which at once conduced to the comfort of the 
prisoners and awoke in ihem a sense of gratitude 
to him and respect for themselves which found ad- 
ditional fruits in improved morale and more effi- 
cient discipline. In both prisons under his con- 
trol (at Fitchburg as well as at Worcester) he 
did away with the shaving of heads and the wear- 
ing of parti-colored garments, believing them to be 
unnecessary indignities imposed upon short-term 
prisoners. Food of better quality, in greater variety, 
and prepared under the best hygienic methods, was 
provided, and at less cost than that of an inferior 
quality. Better clothing and bedding were provided. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



45 



and llie library was largely increased with carefully 
selected books. General Sprague's efforts, many of 
them innovations, were so highly appreciated by the 
commissioners of prisons that they gave warm ex- 
pressions to their commendation in their annnal re- 
ports, pronouncing the Worcestrt- county prisons 
the model prisons of the commonwealth. Addi- 
tional appreciation was expressed by Governor Long, 
who urged General Sprague to accept the appoint- 
ment of warden of the state prison, but he was so 
interested in his work in the Worcester county 
prison that he declined. 

General Sprague has also rendered useful service 
in both branches of the municipal govtrnment. In 
December, 1895, he was elected mayor of Worcester, 
and was re-elected the following year, his term of 
office being thus extended to January, 1898. His ad- 
ministration was particularly distinguished as the 
one during which was erected the new city hall, a 
building of notable beauty and utility, and from 
the beginning of the work until it was practically 
completed, he was an ex-ofScio member of the 
building commission, and gave his oversight to the 
work of construction. At the present time General 
Sprague is president of the Worcester Electric 
Light Company, and of the Worcester Mechanics 
Savings Bank. General Sprague maintains a deep 
interest in the various military bodies with which 
he is connected, and in which he is most widely 
and favorably known. A. B. R. Sprague Post No. 
24, G. A. R., of Grafton, was named in his honor. 
In 1868 he w-as commander of the Massachusetts 
Department of that order, and in 1873-74 was quar- 
termaster-general on the staff of the national com- 
mander, General Charles Devens. He is a charter 
member of the Massachusetts Commandery, Mili- 
tary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 
and in 1868 was its junior vice-commander. He 
aided in the formation of the Fifty-first Massachu- 
setts Regiment Association, of which he has been 
for many years president. In 1889 that body pre- 
sented to him a beautiful and valuable diamond 
studded Grand Army badge, and in 1903 it paid him 
the high compliment of causing his war-time por- 
trait to be painted and presented to the Worcester 
County Mechanics Association, which placed it upon 
the wall of their hall. He is also a member of the 
Society of Mayflower descendants, of the Masonic 
fraternity, and of numerous other social and bene- 
ficial organizations. 

General Sprague married, December 23, 1846, 
Elizabeth Janes, daughter of Samuel and Eliza Shep- 
ard Rice, who was born January 25. 1826, and died 
February 20, 1889. Their children, all born in Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, were : Samuel Augustus, born 
June 17, 1847, died May 12, 1848. William Augustus, 
born May 11, 1850, died ApriLp, 1857. Josephine 
Elizabeth, born December 19, 1851, married, Octo- 
ber 16, 1872, Edward H. Knowlton, and died in 
Worcester, December 7, 1879. She left one son, 
Howard Sprague Knowlton, born jNIarch 4, 1878. 
He was graduated at the Worcester Polytechnic In- 
stitute, class of 1898, and married, October 17, 1901, 
Alice Frances Conant. Carrie Lee, born April 17, 
1858, died August 28, 1877. Fred Foster, born Oc- 
tober 24, 1864, married, April 12, 1892, Adaline 
Estelle Sprague. He died July 16, 1906. Gen- 
eral Sprague married (second), October 23, 
1S90. Mary Jennie, daughter of William C. 
and Martha Kimball Barbour, of Worcester. 
She was born September 24, 1857. and was 
at the time of her marriage assistant librarian of 
the Free Public Library of Worcester. Their only 
child, Alice Alden, was born September II, 1893. 



WILLIAM ELLIS RICE, son of William and 
Emeline (.Draper) Rice, was born at Ware, Massa- 
chusetts, August 6, 1833. 

He is from colonial stock, being in the seventh 
line from his first American ancestor, Deacon Ed- 
mund Rice, who, born in 1594, came from Berk- 
hamstead, Hertfordshire, England, and settled in 
Sudbury, ^Massachusetts, in 1638. His genealogical 
descent is through Thomas, born 1611 ; Ephraim, 
born 1655; John, born 1704: Peter, born 1755; Will- 
iam, born 1803. His grandfather, Peter Rice, born 
at Sudbury, Massachusetts, June 25, 1755, moved 
to Spencer, Massachusetts, and married Olive, 
daughter of Major Asa Baldwin, of Spencer, an 
officer in the revolutionary army. Peter Rice was a 
soldier in the revolutionary war, a member of Cap- 
tain Seth Washburn's company that marched from 
Leicester, and was one of those actually in the fight 
at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. William, son of 
Peter, and the youngest of thirteen children, all 
born at Spencer, was the father of William Ellis. 
He died at Worcester, November 18, 1882. 

On the maternal side his grandfather, Hon. 
James Draper, born at Spencer, February 26, 1778, 
was the sixth of that name in direct descent from 
James Draper, who, born 1618, came from Halifax, 
Yorkshire, England, and settled in Roxbury, Massa- 
chusetts. He was born in Spencer and died there 
in 1868. in his ninety-first year, having served his 
native town in many capacities, such as town clerk, 
chairman board of selectmen, town treasurer, over- 
seer of the poor, town agent, etc. He was also a 
county commissioner, a member of- the general court 
for thirteen years, a senator, a magistrate for over 
fifty years, and the author of Draper's "History of 
Spencer," published in 1841. 

His mother, the eldest daughter of James and 
Lucy (Watson) Draper, of Spencer, was a woman 
of unusual dignity of character, intelligent, kind- 
hearted and sympathetic. She died in 1854. The 
parents of Mr. Rice were residing at his birth in 
Ware, where his father with his father's eldest 
brother were proprietors of the general store of the 
town ; some years later his parents took up their 
residence in Worcester. 

The subject of this sketch was given such edu- 
cation as was considered necessary to fit for com- 
mercial business, including a year or so at the high 
school and about the same time at Leicester Acad- 
ein3'. In 1852, at the age of eighteen he obtained 
the position of clerk and book-keeper in the counting 
room of Ichabod Washburn & Co., in Worcester, 
at that time the principal drawers and finishers of 
the finer grades of iron wire in this country. He 
remained with this firm about seven years, acquir- 
ing a general knowledge of business and of the 
manufacture of wire, and then relinquished his posi- 
tion and engaged in similar business in a smaller 
way on 'his own account, in partnership with Mr. 
Dorrance S. Goddard, under the firm name of Wil- 
liam E. Rice & Co. Business was started in leased 
premises in Connecticut, and shortly after moved to 
Holyoke, Massachusetts, where a large modern plant 
was erected by them, and the venture made success- 
ful and prosperous. 

In 1865, at the solicitation of Mr. Ichabod Wash- 
burn, whose confidence and favor Mr. Rice pos- 
sessed, this business was joined with Mr. Wash- 
burn's larger business, then incorporated under the 
title of I. Washburn & Moen Wire Works. Con- 
currently Mr. Rice became a stockholder, director 
and executive officer in this corporation. From this 
merger Mr. Rice's influence and activity in the 
further development in Worcester of its greatest 



46 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



industry, the manufacture of wire, began. He was 
in hearty accord with Mr. Washburn in the belief 
that the business could be greatly expanded with 
beneficial results. Closely following this connection, 
a plant in the village of Quinsigamond was pur- 
chased and a company incorporated under die title 
of the Quinsigamond Iron and Wire Works, for the 
manufacture of wire-rods and wire, with Mr. Rice 
as its treasurer and general manager. This com- 
pany was very successful in business, and was 
merged with the I. Washburn & Moen Wire Works, 
under the corporate title of Washburn & Moen 
Manufacturing Company, in 1868. This merger 
marked an epoch in the enlargement of the wire 
industry in Worcester, and was the occasion of the 
purchase of the manufacturing site on Grove street, 
at that time occupied in part, under lease, by the 
I. Washburn & Moen Wire Works, and the erection, 
under a comprehensive plan, of substantial mill 
buildings and power plants and the installation of 
the continuous rod-rolling system for producing 
rods of small gauge and in longer lengths than was 
at the time practiced in this country. This practice 
was introduced from England, where it was re- 
reported upon by Mr. Rice during his visit to the 
manufacturing districts there in 1867. This system, 
modified and greatly improved by Worcester engi- 
neers, has been a potent factor in promoting the 
growth of the wire industry in Worcester. Mr. 
Rice, who was a director in the corporation and its 
treasurer, was influential and active in the expan- 
sion, as well as in the general conduct of the busi- 
ness which has resulted in adding so noticeably to 
the population and to the property of Worcester. 
In 1870 Mr. Rice visited the iron manufacturing 
districts of Sweden, and arranged for the manufac- 
ture of special bars for the continuous rolling sys- 
tem, acquiring for his company the distinction in 
Sweden of being the first consumer in this country 
to import rolled iron direct from Swedish manufac- 
turers. In 1877 Mr. Rice organized the Worcester 
Wire Company, for the general manufacture of wire, 
with a plant at South Worcester. This also, be- 
came an exceedingly successful company. In 1899 
■Mr. Rice, as president of the Worcester Wire Com- 
pany, which office he took in 1877, and of the Wash- 
burn & Moen Manufacturing Company, which office 
he took in 1891, was instrumental, in behalf of the 
stockholders, in effecting a sale and transfer of all 
the shares of the above mentioned corporations, and 
in merging the business affairs of both in the Amer- 
ican Steel & Wire Co. The successful conclusion 
of this important negotiation permitted the much de- 
sired withdrawal of Mr. Rice from the business 
affairs upon which his attention had so long been 
concentrated, and his general relinquishment of 
business pursuits. Mr. Rice has filled numerous 
fiduciary positions of importance, and been con- 
nected in matters of consequence with many cor- 
porate and other organizations. 

Mr. Rice married, January II. 1866, Frances 
Helen, dautrhter of Thomas L. and Margaret (Bart- 
lett") Randlett. 6i Newburyport. Massachusetts, who 
died May 3. 1879. December 15, 1881, he married 
Lucy Draper, daughter of Moores M. and Sophia 
A. (Draper') White, of the city of New York. He 
has two children: Christine, the wife of Hon. Rock- 
wood Hoar, M. C. ; and Albert White. A. M.. Har- 
vard, 1905, now a student in the Harvard Law 
School. 

WHITNEY FAMILY. John Whitney, the emi- 
grant ancester of George C. Wliitney and the late 
Edward Whitney, of Worcester, settled in Water- 
town, Massachusetts, in 1635. He was born about 



1589. His wife, Elinor, was born about 1599. With 
seven children they embarked at Ipswich, England, 
in April, 1635. They have a very large posterity in 
America. Another John Whitney settled in Con- 
necticut and founded an equally large family. 

John Whitney bought the sixteen acres home- 
stall of John Strickland at what is now Waltham, 
m Watertown then, situated on what is now Bel- 
mont and East Common streets. Strickland went 
to Wethersfield, Connecticut, to live. John Whit- 
ney was admitted a freeman March 3, 1635-6. He 
was a constable in 1641 and a selectman from 1638 
to 1655 inclusive. He was town clerk in 1655. 
His wife Elinor died May 11, 1659, said to be fifty- 
four years old, though other records would make 
her about sixty. He married (second), September 
29, i66g, Judah Clement. He died June i, 1673, 
said to be seventy-four years old. The ancestry of 
John Whitney is given with the Whitney Family 
elsewhere in this work. 

The children of John and Elinor Whitney were : 
Mary, baptized in England, May 23, 1619, died 
young: John, baptized in England, 1620; Richard, 
baptized in England, 1626, married Martha Coldam; 
Nathaniel, baptized in England, 1627; Thomas, bap- 
tized in England, 1629, married Mary Kedall (Ket- 
tell); Jonathan, baptized in England, 1634, married 
Lydia Jones ; Joshua, baptized in England, July 5, 
163s, married Lydia ; Mary ; and Abi- 
gail Tarbell; Caleb, born in Watertown, July 12, 
1640: Benjamin, born in Watertown, June 6, 1643, 
married Jane and Mary Poor. 

(II) John Whitney, son of John Whitney (i) 
was born in England in 1620. He settled in Water- 
town, Massachusetts. He married, 1642, Ruth Rey- 
nolds, daughter of Robert Reynolds, of Wethers- 
field, Watertown and Boston. John Whitney lived 
on a three acre lot on the east side of Lexington 
street on land granted to E. How, next the home- 
stall of the Phillips (q. v.) Family. Whitney was 
admitted a freeman May 26, 1647, at the age of 
twenty-three He was selectman from 1673 to 1680 
inclusive He was a soldier in 1673, 3nd ^^'as in 
King Philip's war. He died October 12, 1692. 

The children of John and Ruth (Reynolds) 
Whitney were : John, born September 12, 1643, 
married Elizabeth Harris; Ruth, born April 15, 
1645, rnarried, June 20, 1664, John Shattuck, son of 
the emigrant William Shattuck : John was drowned 
while crossing the Charlestown Ferry, September 
14, 1675; he was in the Squakeag fight September 
4, 1675. and was on his way to Boston to report the 
disaster to his company : Nathaniel, born February 
I, 1646, married Sarah Hagar; Samuel, born July 
26. 1648, married Mary Bemis : Mary, born April 29, 
1650, died unmarried after 1693 I Joseph, born Janu- 
ary 15, 1651, married Martha Beach; Sarah, born 
March 17, 1653, married. October 18, 1681, Daniel 
Harrington; she died June 8, 1720: he married 
(second), October 25, 1720, Elizabeth Bridge, widow 
of Captain Benjamin Garfield; Elizabeth, born June 
0. 1656. married, December iq. 1678. Daniel Warren : 
Hannah ; ' Benjamin, born June 28, 1660, married 
Abigail Hagar and Elizabeth . 

(III) Benjamin Whitney, son of John Whitney 
(2), was born in Watertown, Massachusetts, June 
28, 1660. He married, March 30, 16S7, .Abigail 
Hagar, daughter of William and Mary (Bemis) 

Hagar. He married (second) Elizabeth — . He 

died in 1736. His children were : Abigail, born 
in Watertown, March 3, 1688. married, March 18, 
1717. Richard Sawtel ; Benjamin, baptized July 10, 

i6gS, married Rebecca : Ruth, baptized July 

10, 1698, married, July 7, 1715, John Bond, bap- 
tized November 23, 1690, removed to Worcester 




'* 




EDWARD WHITNEY 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



47 



before 1752; John, born June 15, 1694, married 

(first) Susan , (second) Bethia Cutter and 

(third) Mrs. Beriah (Bcmis) (Cliild) Pierce; 
David, born June 16, 1697; Daniel, born July 17, 
1700, married Dorothy Tainter. 

(IV) Ensign David Whitney, son of Benjamin 
Whitney (3), was born in Watertown, Massachus- 
etts, Jiine 16, 1697. He married, 1720, Rebecca 
Fillebrown, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
November 6, 1695, and died 1749- He was one of 
the proprietors of land at Paris, Maine, in 1736. 
He died in 1745. He resided in Watertown and 
Waltham, Massachusetts. Their children were : 
Rebecca, born November 2, 1721, married, July 18, 
1845, Thomas Stowell; David, September 25, 1723, 
married Mary Merriam ; Anna, August 8, 1725, mar- 
ried, June 4, 1752, Samuel Merriam; Nathan, born 
March 12, 1726; Ruth, February 23, 1728, died April 
23, 1757; Josiah, November 22, 1730, married Sarah 
Lawrence; Jonas, June 25, 1733, married Sarah 
Whittemore ; Jonathan, February 10, 1735, died April 

9, 1757- 

(V) Nathan Whitney, son of David Whitney 
(4), was born March 12, 1726-7. He married 

Tabitha Merriam. He settled in Westminster, 
Massachusetts. He bought of Benjamin Brown, 
December 26, 1750, a lot of ninety acres of land 
in the southern part of the town ; part of this land 
is still owned by his descendants and used as the 
summer home of George C. Whitney and the family 
of Edward Whitney, of Worcester. He also bought 
of Thomas Merriam. his father-in-law, the south- 
east ends of the adjoining lots. 83 and 84, on which 
he built his first temporary house. His framed house 
which was built later forms the older part of the 
present structure on the old homestead. He brought 
his bride to Westminster in 1752 or 1753. ' His 
struggle with the soil and misfortune almost dis- 
couraged him. In the epidemic of 1756 both their 
children were taken. Again in 1764 their four chil- 
dren died of the epidemic. Out of nine children 
only three lived to maturity. 

Nathan Whitney was a persevering and enter- 
prising man. and at length he prospered. He be- 
came one of the leading men of the town, and had 
an honorable military record. He was corporal in 
Captain Daniel Hoar's company in 1759. From 1771 
to 1776 he held a commission from (jeorge HI as 
captain. He sided with the colonists against the 
king, resigned his commission and took what part 
his age and health permitted in the revolution. In 
1776 he was in charge of the Hessian prisoners 
from the British armv stationed at his old home- 
stead in Westminster. He died Aug;ust 10, 1803, 
aged seventy-six. His wife Tabitha died December 
26, 1822, aged ninety years. Mr. Whitney was one 
of the largest property holders on the Westminster 
tax list of 1798. 

The children of Nathan and Tabitha (Merriam) 
Whitney were: Tabitha, born June 29, 1753; 
Nathan, May 16, 1755, died August 28, 1756; 
Tabitha, July 6, 1757, died January 27, 1764; Nathan, 
April 9, 1760, died July 2, 1764 ; Jonathan, May 14, 
1761, died June 21, 1764; Ruth, April 17, 1763, died 
July 7. 1764: Nathan. July i. 1765; David, August 
ID, 1767; John, October 13, 1769. 

(VI) John Whitney, son of Captain Nathan 
Whitney (5), was born in Westminster, Massa- 
chusetts. He married Elizabeth Stearns, daughter 
of Josiah and Abigail (Emerson) Stearns. December 
31. 1793- He settled on the first lot bought by his 
father. No. 90, and built the house now in use as 
a summer home by the Whitney family of Wor- 
cester. He died at the early age of thirty-two years, 
June 25. 1802. His widow married James Walker, 



who died without issue. She married (third) Luke 
Warren, of Hibbardston, by whom she had four 
children. She died October 30, 1838, aged sixty- 
eight years. The children of John and Elizabeth 
(Stearns) Whitney were: John, born January 15, 
179s. died February 22, 1796; John, February 20, 
1797; Betsy, May 3, 1799, married April 30, 1829, 
Thomas Merriam, and resided at Westminster; had 
three children; died July 15, 1888. 

(VII) John Whitney, son of John Whitney (6), 
was born in Westminster, Massachusetts. He suc- 
ceeded to his father's estate and lived upon it all 
his life. He married Lydia Allen, daughter of 
Deacon Ephraim Allen, of Hubbardston (published 
September 30), 1821. They had a family of eight 
children, all of whom were of excellent character 
and reputation. He was greatly interested in the 
education of his children, fitted up a school room in 
his house, and maintained a private school, the ad- 
vantages of -which were shared by many children 
besides his own. He became a Baptist in middle 
life and joined the church. Later he was chosen 
deacon. In 1843-4 typhoid fever struck down all 
the members of the household. The father, mother 
and one child died. The date of his death was 
March 15, 1844, aged forty-seven ; of his wife De- 
cember 19, 1843, aged forty-one. 

Their children were : J. Emerson, born Septem- 
ber 13, 1822, married twice, resided at Grafton, 
Massachusetts; Sumner A., June 27, 1824, married 
Lura Clarke, had three children ; he died August 
29, 1861 ; Ephraim, July 6, 1826, died June 20, 1850; 
Mary, October 23, 1829, married Charles M. Tinley, 
had three daughters; she died February 25, 1859; 
Harriet, May 29, 1832, married twice, resided in 
Worcester and Minnesota ; had two children ; Ed- 
ward, August 12, 1834; Francis S., March 25, 1840, 
died January 16, 1844; George Clarkson, September 
19, 1842. 

(VIII) Edward Whitney, son of John Whitney 
(7), was born on the old Whitney homestead in 
Westminster, Massachusetts, August 12, 1834. He 
obtained his elementary education in the public 
schools of his native town. In 1852, at the age of 
eighteen, he went to New York to strike out in 
business for himself. There he remained for four 
years, holding a position of trust in the Metropoli- 
tan Bank. In 1856 he came to Worcester, joitiing 
his elder brother, Sumner A. Whitney, in the station- 
ery business which was carried on in the Butman 
block for a few years. His brother died in 1861 
and he continued the business alone. He removed 
soon after to the Bowen block at the corner of Main 
and Mechanic streets, where he remained for about 
twenty years. Early in the eighties he removed to 
the present location of the business at 112 Front 
street. Shortly before his death Mr. Whitney ad- 
mitted to partnership his two sons, Edward Cutting 
Whitney and Harry Sumner Whitney, and they 
have succeeded to the business which is carried on 
under the same name. The firm does a large whole- 
sale trade in paper and stationery, blank books, 
manila paper and paper bags, all over New England. 
Mr. Whitney occupied a high position in the business 
community. His sterling character was the founda- 
tion of the great business success of his business. 

During the last few years of his life he turned 
his business cares over to his sons and spent some 
time in foreign travel, visiting various sections of 
America. Europe and the Holy Land, in which he 
took especial interest. He was an active and efficient 
worker in church and Sunday school. When he 
first came to Worcester he joined the Union Con- 
gregational Church and was superintendent of its 
Sunday school for more than ten years. He was 



48 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



also deacon for many years. About 1892 he trans- 
ferred his membership to the Plymouth Congre- 
gational Church. He was president of the Wor- 
cester Young Men's Christian Association for two 
years. He was for several years chairman of the 
e.xecutive committee of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of Massachusetts. He was president of 
the Worcester Congregational Club for two years. 
He was a trustee of the Home for Aged Men. Few 
men have done more for the religious interests of 
the city than Mr. Whitney. He never cared for 
politics to any extent and never considered public 
office. It has been said of him that he was "inter- 
ested in whatever was conducive to human wel- 
fare, and he did much to promote the better life 
of his adopted city and to lift the world to a higher 
level." Mr. Whitney died February 5, 1897. He 
married, November 26, 1857, Susan Louise Cutting, 
born August 29, 1838, died January i, 1880. He 
married (second), October 27, 1886, Emma Louise 
Rice, who survives him ; she is the daughter of 
William Ri(?e. The children of Edward and Susan 
Louise (Cutting) Whitney were: Lillie Marie, 
born in Worcester. June 19, 1867, died August 24, 
1868; Edward Cutting, born July ig, 1869; Harry 
Sumner, born June i, 1873. married Alice Wright 
Gibson, of Germantown, Philadelphia, daughter of 
Alfred C. Gibson, of Germantown, they have one 
daughter, Louise, born March 30, 1905. 

GROUT FAMILY. Of English descent, we find 
the first representative in this country to be Captain 
John Grout (I), of Watertown and Sudbury, 
Massachusetts. He came from England with his 
gun in his hand and first settled at Watertown. 
His date of settlement vi'as about 1640, and in 1662 
he was granted leave to practice as a "Chirurgeon." 
A few years later it is found that he moved to Sud- 
bury, where for thirty years he served as selectman. 
He acquired the title of Captain, and was given 
charge of defending the settlements at Sudbury. 
May 14, 1648, he testified that, about 1642, Tacomus, 
an Indian Sagamore, or chief man among the In- 
dians at Chapnacunco, came to Boston with his sons 
and received sundry gifts and favors from Governor 
John Winthrop. In return he proposed to give 
Winthrop some land up in his country (Nipmug). 
John Grout, with others, went to take possession 
of the land. His eldest son kneeled down on the 
ground, and Tacomus made his mark to the deed 
on his son's back; then the father signed it on his 
father's back, and so one, with all the other sons, 
the same way, thus abandoning all right of succes- 
sion to the land. John Grout was recognized as a 
man of great courage and much wisdom. For 
forty years he was in charge of the train bands, or 
militia of Sudbury. He was twice married. His 
second wife was Sarah Busby, widow of Captain 
Thomas Cakebread. By his first wife Mary he had 
children : John, born 1641 ; Sarah. 1643 ; Joseph, 
1649; Abigail, 1655; Jonathan, 1658; Mary, 1661 ; 
Susannah. 1664; and Elizabeth. 

(II) Jonathan Grout, born 1658, married Abi- 
gail Di.x, sister of John Dix. grandfather of Dr. 
Elijah, of Worcester and Dixmont, Maine. Their 
children: I. Jonathan, born February 9, 1702. 2. 
Josiah, born 1703. 3. John, born 1704. 4. Abigail, 
born 1708. 5. Sarah, born 171 1. 6. Patience, born 
in 1714. 7. Peter, born 1715. 

(III) Jonathan Grout, son of Jonathan (2), 
born February 9, 1702, married Hannah Hurd. June 
6, 1743, and purchased the farm referred to and re- 
moved from Sudbury to Worcester with his wife 
and one child in 1744. He died 174S, leaving his 
widow with three children: i. Jonathan, born June 



2, 1744. 2. Silence, born November 8, 1745, mar- 
ried Josiah Gates, February 20, 1771. 3. Priscilla, 
born August 13, 1747. 

(IV) Captain Jonathan Grout, son of Jonathan 
(3), born June 2, 1744, when sixteen years of age 
returned to Worcester, assuming charge of his 
father's estate, left him by his father. He rendered 
valuable service during the revolutionary war. He 
married, March 2, 1769, Anna Harrington, who died 
August 25, 1827. He died October 17, 1828, leav- 
ing children: i. Jonathan, born February 14, 1772. 
2. Anna, born September 16, 1774. 3. Francis, born 
October 30, 1777. 4. Hannah, born May 7, 1781. 

(V) Captain Francis Grout, second son of Cap- 
tain Jonathan Grout (4)., born October 30, 1777, 
remained on the old homestead and became a farmer. 
True to the loyalty of the Grout family, in early 
life he enrolled in the Massachusetts militia, April 
20, 1804, became sergeant of a company in First 
Regiment ; March, r8og, was made ensign, and a 
year later lieutenant, and promoted to captain in 
181 r. He married Aumah Davis, of Templeton, 
and their children were : Julia Aumah, Sarah, 
Jonathan Davis. Captain Francis Grout died in 
Worcester, October 31, 1864. aged eighty-seven 
years. His youngest child and only son was : 

(VI) Jonathan Davis Grout, who succeeded to 
the old homestead, and married Adeline S. Wash- 
burn, 1850, and died, leaving two sons: i. Francis, 
born 1851. 2. Charles Henry, born 1854. The latter 
became a popular music teacher of Worcester, where 
he still resides. Francis W. inherited the home farm. 
He was selected a member of the city government, 
serving as Alderman in 1891-92-93-94. 

Jonathan Grout ("Master"), son of Jonathan 
(4), born 1772, after gaining the advantages of the 
Worcester schools, entered Leicester Academy and 
there fitted himself for a teacher. Success as a 
teacher gave him the title far and near of "Master" 
Grout. He mastered the book-binding trade as well, 
and became an extensive dealer in books and sta- 
tionery in Millbury. He also became a noted author 
of school te.xt-books, including "The Pupil's Guide 
to Practical Arithmetic," published in 1802, the first 
work on mathematics published in this country. 
His books had a wide sale, as his work was a great 
improvement over the old hard-written "lessons" 
and rules on mathematics, which, together with his 
book, are now among the antiquarian relics of the . 
Worcester Society of Antiquity. It is said of him 
that "he was a Puritan through and through, except 
their faults." He married Sally De Wolfe, of 
Lyme, Connecticut, and had children: i. Edwin, 
born August 4. 1812. 2. Jonathan, born September 
24, 1815. 3. Sarah Ann, born February 13, 1820. 

(VI) Jonathan Grout, son of Jonathan (5), 
born September 24, 181 5, became a popular book 
seller and owned Grout's block, coming to Wor- 
cester from his native town, Millbury, in 1841. He 
first started in a small way. After twelve years 
of remarkable "business success, in 1852 he sold his 
business to John Keith. Other changes occurred in 
the business, he having it again, but in 1876 it was 
sold to Putnam & Davis. Mr. Grout built several 
fine business houses in Worcester and w'as a well- 
to-do man. He died April 4. 1882. His .grandfather 
settled in 1744 upon the Grout estate on Vernon 
street, Worcester, which has remained in one branch 
of the family ever since. The subject of this notice 
was the fifth of the same name (Jonathan) in direct 
line of succession from the progenitor in this coun- 
try. Captain John Grout of Watertown. 1640. Jona- 
than Jr. was interested in the making of copying 
presses, perforated paper, etc., and indirectly through 
pecuniary investment in the enterprise of Dr. Rus- 





c^ ^& 



~:>g>^ . 




WORCESTER COUNTY 



49 



stll L. Hawes, who invented the machines for and 
produced tlie first envelopes in the world, which 
were put upon the marlcet by Mr. Grout. He was 
a man of great business tact, energy and sagacity, 
quick to decide and act. His capacity for taking 
in large transactions was wonderful. It was in 
i860 that he went in company with L. H. Bigelow 
and built another bus-iness block. He found time 
from out all liis business concerns to devote some 
happy hours in the cultivating of his finer instincts. 
He loved art and good pure literature. He loved 
nature and was an admirer of birds, trees and 
flowers in their state of freedom. Also, in horticul- 
ture and floriculture he took great delight. He was 
a Whig and Republican in politics, but no office 
seeker. He married ]\Iary J. Smith, by whoin he 
had children: i. Charles Edwin, died in infancy. 
2. Ellen Mandcrville, married George H. Gould, 
D. D., who died May 8, 1899, and she then married 
Rev. William S. Smith. 3. John William, born 
Julv J5, 184,^. 4. Marv Elizabeth, married Hiram 
R. -Adams. 

(VH) Lieutenant John W. Grout, only son of 
Jonathan Grout (6), born July 25, 1843, "'as barely 
old enough to claim a man's standing when he fell 
a voluntary sacrifice on the altar of his country, 
in the civil war period. He was fine and manly in 
his features, and with elastic vigor, and the "crim- 
son glow of health" he seemed every inch a soldier. 
His was a rare combination of qualities. He was an 
accomplished pianist, was also proficient in mathe- 
matics, and had an art for drawing, to which he 
added some knowledge of the French language and 
of ancient classics. In early youth he exhibited 
signs of military genius. A treasured specimen is 
a whittled dagger with a Union shield on it, now 
doubly prized. He entered the military department 
of Caleb B. Metcalf's Highland school at Worcester 
and became an expert in tactics. This peculiarly 
fitted him, when the Rebellion opened up, for active, 
useful service. Upon the organization of the Fif- 
teenth Massachusetts Regiment he was welcomed 
to Company D as its second lieutenant, and he 
drilled the company until it went to the front. True 
to his retiring nature he chose some secluded spot 
in which to drill his men. 

The story of Leesburg (Balls Bluff), October 
21, 1S61, is familiar to many, and is a matter of war 
department record, but we wish here to make men- 
tion of the fact enacted by him of whom we write. 
The Fifteenth Massachusetts Regiment was in the 
thickest of the fight and sufl-'ered great loss. Lieu- 
tenant Grout was found adequate to his duties. His 
coolness and self-possession astonished all of his 
men. In the terrific showers of leaden hail. Provi- 
dence shielded him from harm. Upon the foe, who 
would bayonet a wounded soldier, he executed sum- 
mary wrath. Every blow of his own sword told 
in hand-to-hand contest. He declared he would 
never surrender alive. Compelled to retreat, his 
coolness was still maintained. Driven to the bank 
of the river, he still forgot himself, in the service 
being rendered to make good the escape of his 
command. With inadequate ineans for transporta- 
tion he crossed the stream with the wounded men 
and returned: again the frail boat was filled to its 
capacity and he remained upon the shore, but he 
had risked too much for his own safety. The re- 
mainder were now reduced to the last extremity, 
and when the young lieutenant went up to hi's 
superior, with the calm but heroic enquiry, "Is 
there anything more I can do?" the reply of Colonel 
Devens was, "Nothing but take care of yourself." 
And when the Colonel cried to his brave men "I 
shall never surrender!" and with benediction "God 
4 



be with you all," gave the final order," Every man 
for himself," Lieutenant Grout had done his duty, 
and nobly justified the highest expectations of his 
admirers. After waiting for the first faint glimpse 
of the rising moon, he threw his incumbrances be- 
yond recovery, and with a few companions plunged 
mto the stream, but before he could reach the oppo- 
site shore, the fatal ball of the barbarous assassin 
left him only time and strength to exclaim "Tell 
Company D that I should have escaped, but I am 
shot." He was lost in the dark rolling waters of 
the Potomac, but after some time the river, yielded 
up tlie treasure, and under the flag of his heroic 
love he was borne from the paternal mansion "to 
the. house appointed for all living." We are indebted 
for the facts here given to a memorial written by 
Rev. E. Cutlet;, soon after the gallant soldier was 
killed, and it is a priceless gem among the family 
possessions, and they have thus had it inserted in 
this volume to further perpetuate the pathetic story 
of one who gave up his young life to save his com- 
rades^nd his country as well. 

This sketch of the Grout family would be in- 
complete without a few lines to place upon record 
some of the accomplishments of a sister of this 
deceased hero. Lieutenant John William Grout. 
Ellen Mandeville Grout was born in the town of 
Princeton, Massachusetts, at the foot of Mount 
Wachusett, in the year 1840. Her father soon re- 
moved from Princeton, and while prosecuting suc- 
cessful business enterprises in Worcester, the daugh- 
ter attended the graded schools there, and also 
attended the Oread Collegiate Institute that famous 
school founded by Hon. Eli Thayer for the educa- 
tion of girls. In October, 1862, she was married 
to Rev. George H. Gould, who two years later was 
settled as pastor over the old Center Church in 
Hartford, Connecticut. About the year 1870 Dr 
Gould returned to Worcester, Mas"sachusetts, and 
for several years was pastor of Piedmont Church 
He was a very popular and gifted preacher and dis- 
tinguished for his brilliant oratory. He died May 
8, 1899. and his widow married for her second hus- 
band the Rev. William S. Smith, of Auburndale 
Mrs. Smith is greatly interested in the subject of 
conchology, and is the possessor of a large and valu- 
able collection of shells, many of them rare and 
very beautiful. She has given much time to the 
study of conchology, and has lectured in Boston 
Worcester and other places on that subject illus- 
trating her addresses with selections from her stock 
of beautiful shells, also with fine water-color de- 
signs. She presents her subject not so much in a 
scientific as m a popular wav, quoting from litera- 
ture, history and geology. She has published a 
volume of Dr. Gould's sermons, which is entitled- 
In what Life Consists, and Other Sermons" and 
has written articles for the papers and magazines. 
Mrs. Smith has traveled extensively in this country 
and in Europe. 

WELLINGTON EVARTS PARKHURST. 

I he family of which Wellington E. Parkhurst, who 
was born January 19, 1835, in Framingham, Massa- 
chusetts, is a member, is of ancient English origin 
the name appearing as earlv as A. D 1000 The 
sigmhcation of the name is seen in its construction 

fark meaning a public ground, and "Hurst" a 
grove or wood. The history of the Isle of Wieht 
mentions a royal park called "Parkhurst Forest" 
1 wo centtjries ago a colony of Parkhursts migrated 
from Parkhurst, on that island, to Surrey county 
in England, from which branch of the family the 
Americans of this name are supposed to have de- 
scended. Bishop Parkhurst, of Norwich, England 
who died in 1574, is supposed to have been the 



50 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



grandfather of the great-grandfather of George 
Parkhurst. tlic first settler in America. 

The descent of the American families from the 
George, mentioned above, was as follows : I. 
George, living in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 
1643. II. George, Jr., born in 1618, lived in Water- 
town. III. John, born in 1644, also resided in 
Watertown. IV. John, Jr., deacon, born in 1671, 
lived in Weston. V. Josiah, born in 1706, also re- 
sided in Weston. VI. Josiah, Jr.. born in 1736, first 
settled in Weston, and in 1762 removed to Fram- 
ingham, building a house near "Cutler Mills," later 
a part of the town of Ashland. VII. Ephraim. born 
in Framingham, January 16, 1765, a farmer, died at 
the homestead. January 20, 1850. VIII. Charles F 
W., of whom later. IX. Welling;ton Evarts, of 
whom later, 

Charles F. W. Parkhurst (father) was born 
March 5, 1808, in Framingham, Massachusetts, a 
son of Ephraim Parkhurst, a farmer, also the teacher 
of district schools for twenty-one successive win- 
ters. Charles F. W. was educated in the town 
schools and at Framingham Academy. In 1853 he 
removed to Clinton. Massachusetts, and for twenty- 
one years was paymaster of the Clinton Wire-Cloth 
Company, also for a part of the time served as clerk 
at Parker's Machine Works. He served as first 
town clerk of Ashland, Massachusetts, also several 
years as a member of the school committee, a justice 
of the peace, chorister of the village choir, and 
teacher in penmanship. During his residence in 
Clinton, he also served as a member of the school 
committee board, a portion of which time he acted 
as chairman. He was a member of the Congrega- 
tional church, and served several years as deacon. 
Originally he was an Abolitionist in politics, but 
later became a Republican. On November 8, 1832, 
Mr. Parkhurst married Mary Goodale, born in 
Marlboro, Massachusetts, November 18, 1807, and 
prior to her marriage was a school teacher. Mr. 
Parkhurst died February 9. 1878 ; his wife passed 
awav March 15, 1887. 

Wellington Evarts Parkhurst attended the public 
schools and Framingham Academy. In May. 1853, 
at the age of eighteen, he went to Clinton, taking 
a position in the office of the Bigelow Carpet Com- 
panv. Later he was paymaster at the Lancaster 
Quilt Company's mill, and afterwards assistant 
treasurer of the Clinton Savings Bank. He held 
the office of town clerk six years, and for fifteen 
years was a member of the school board ; he also 
has filled the office of town treasurer, library direc- 
tor and assessor, and for four years was the super- 
intendent of the Congregational Sunday school. He 
represented the Worcester thirteenth district four 
years in the legislature, in the sessions of 1890 01- 
92 and '93, serving as house chairman of the joint 
committee on education, of public charitable insti- 
tutions, also as house chairman of the state legis- 
lative delegation to the Chicago World's Fair, visit- 
ing in the "Massachusetts House," June 17, 1893, 

For a time during the civil war. Mr. Parkhurst 
filled the position of city editor of the Worcester 
Dailv •S'/'V. and was subsequentlv promoted to take 
the chief editorial chair, but declined on account of 
ill health. In tS6.=; he assumed the editorial manage- 
ment of the Clinton tFeekly Courant. which posi- 
tion he still fills, after a continuous service of about 
forty-one years. In 1893 he also became the editor 
of the Clinton Daily Item, having served to the 
present date, a period of about thirteen years. On 
the occasion of a vacancy on the board of trustees 
of the State Sanitarium for Consumptives, at Rut- 
land. Massachusetts, Governor Wolcott, in 1897, ap- 
pointed him to the position, which he still holds 



by a reappointment in 1902. At the semi-centennial 
of the incorporation of the town of Clinton, in 1900, 
he officiated as chairman of the reception committee, 
and as chairman on the occasion of the public exer- 
cises in the town hall. In 1904 he was elected by 
the Republican convention of the fourth Massa- 
chusetts district a delegate to the national conven- 
tion held in Chicago, Mr. Parkhurst is a member 
of the Masonic Order, lodge, chapter and command- 
ery. A member of the Odd Fellows Order. A 
member of the Massachusetts Press Association, of 
which he was one of the original members. A 
member of Pomona and Lancaster Granges. A 
member of Clinton Historical Society, of which he 
was one of the organizers and for ten years the 
treasurer. A member of the Clinton board of trade. 
On September 13, 1866, Mr. Parkhurst married 
Miss Hattie F. Fairbank, of West Boylston, who 
died December 13. 1885. On August 9, 1887, Mr. 
Parkhurst married Miss Georgiana B. Warren, a 
daughter of George and Pamelia (Fames) Warren, 
of Framingham, Xlassachusetts. Mr. Parkhurst has 
one sister. Miss Helen Adelaide, for many years 
a teacher of music and of day schools, also two 
brothers : Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D., for 
the past twenty-five years pastor of the Madison 
Square Presbyterian Church of New York city; 
and Professor Howard E. Parkhurst, organist at 
the same church, also a teacher of music, a resident 
of Englevvood, New Jersey. 

GENERAL JOSIAH PICKETT. The record 
of Worcester is no exception to that of other cities 
in this great Republic, but the reader has only to 
glance at the long roll of names of patriotic men 
who, during those trying days of the civil war, re- 
sponded to the call of President Lincoln and went 
forth from this city to strengthen the hands of the 
government and help to preserve the Union, to 
in some measure appreciate the -service her citizen 
soldiery rendered the country from the spring of 
1861 to the close of the war. Among those names 
representing that honored list appears that of Gen- 
eral Josiah Pickett, who was born at Beverly, Massa- 
chusetts, November 21, 1822, and after attending 
the common schools of his native town was appren- 
ticed to learn a mechanical trade, which he in rea- 
sonable time acquired and in the prosecution of 
which for a number of years he found remunera- 
tive employment. The prevailing gold excitement 
induced him in 1852 to make a trip to California, 
via the Lake Nicaragua route, where after a so- 
journ of nearly three years, and in the meantime 
a satisfactory trial at mining, he returned to Massa- 
chusetts, and in the early spring of 1855 found a 
home in the city of Worcester. 

His military experience began in July, 1840, as 
a member of Companv F, Sixth Infantry Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer Militia, and within three years 
was advanced to a lieutenancy. Soon after his 
arrival in Worcester he became a member of the 
city guards, and in 1859 was elected a lieutenant of 
the company. When the call for troops came in 
April, 1861, he was among the first to oflFer his 
services and to encourage others to do likewise, and 
as first lieutenant he left Worcester April 20, with 
his company, then assigned to the Third Battalion 
of Rifles, Major Charles Devens, Jr.. commanding. 
The battalion reported at Annapolis, then proceeded 
to Fort McHenry. Maryland, where Lieutenant 
Pickett rendered valuable service during a three 
months' campaign. Returning to Worcester in Au- 
gust, he became actively interested in organizing 
the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry, receiving 
a connnission as captain in September. This regi- 




-^^iX^XCc^t 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



nient left Worcester. October 29, 1861. and was as- 
signed to General Biirnside's forces for ser\ico in 
North Carolina, sailing from Annapolis, Maryland, 
January 9, i86j, and after a perilous experience at 
sea reached the scene of the battle of Roanoke Is- 
land in season to receive their baptismal fire on that 
eighth day of February, Captain Pickett being 
among the first to effect a landing, and was highly 
commended for gallantry in this engagement. 

The battle and capture of Newberne followed, 
on March 14. and on the 20th he was promoted 
to be major, in uiiich capacity he commanded the 
regiment during the Tarboro and Goldsboro expe- 
dition, and, upon the resignation of Colonel Upton, 
on October 29. received a connnission as colonel 
of the regiment. Colonel Pickett gave abundant 
evidence of his courage and capability as an officer 
and soldier. He brought his regiment to a high 
standard of. discipline, rendering conspicuous ser- 
vice in all the subsequent battles and military opera- 
tions in North Carolina, commanding also, with 
signal ability, the forces and defences at Plymouth, 
and of the sub-military district of the Pamlico, at 
Washington. North Carolina, receiving honorable 
mention for such services upon his departun' for 
Virginia to rejoin his regiment in December, 1863. 

Early in 1864 the Twenty-fifth Regiment was 
assigned to Heckman's brigade of the Eighteenth 
Army Corps, for service in the Army of the James, 
and, with his brave and loyal veterans in a new 
field of operations. Colonel Pickett won further dis- 
tinction in the severe engagements that followed, 
notably his gallant repulse of the charging Con- 
federate lines at the battle of Arrowfield Church, 
May 9. Again, in the battle of Drury's Bluff, May 
16. at the critical moment in the fight, the intrepid 
and decisive action of Colonel Pickett saved the 
Union right from irretrievable disaster. In this in- 
stance the First Brigade was being severely pressed 
by the enemy. General Heckman, Colonel Lee. with 
Captain Belger and a portion of his battery had 
fallen into the hands of the enemy and were prison- 
ers. The brigade was in a most critical and serious 
plight, when the command fell to Colonel Pickett, 
whose self possession served him at this moment 
as it had on former occasions. He quickly rallied 
what was left of the brigade, formed a new line of 
battle, and succeeded in holding the enemy in check, 
thereby protecting the base of supplies at Bermuda 
Hundred from possible capture. 

June 3, 1864. at the battle of Cold Harbor, Vir- 
ginia, in a most heroic charge upon the enemy"? 
works, the Twenty-fifth losing two hundred and 
nineteen out of three hundred and two men taken 
into action. Colonel Pickett was severely ivounded 
while leading his brave men throu.gh that "Valley 
of death." and not since the famous charge of the 
brigade at Balaklava, immortalized in story and in 
song, has .greater heroism been displaye<^. So says 
the Confederate General Bowles in his official .re- 
port of the battle. For his distinguished gallantry 
upon this and previous occasions during the war, 
he received a commission as brevet brigadier-gen- 
eral to date from June 3. 1864, the recommendation 
for this commission being signed by Brevet-Major- 
General George J. Stannard. and endorsed by Major 
General A. E. Burnside. Major General John G. 
Foster, U. S. A., and Brevet Brigadier General A. 
B. R. Sprague, U. S. V Disabled from further 
active service in consequence of his wound, and 
deeply regretting his inability to continue with his 
brave comrades until the final victory, he reluctantly 
retired after a service of nearly four years, on Janu- 
ary 10. 1865. having won the respect and confidence 
not onlv of his entire command, but that of his 



superior officers as well. It is not the purpose of 
this sketch to present to the reader incidents as- 
sociated with all of the various engagements during 
the civil war in which General Pickett took part, 
but merely to mention those in which his conduct 
as a soldier and military tactician called for the 
special commendation from his associates in arms 
and from others knowing the facts and competent 
to pass judgment upon his patriotic and praise- 
worthy service. 

.Vfler returning to his home in Worcester, and 
suffering severely for nearly a year from the wound 
in his hip, the ball was finally extracted, and in 
October, 1865, General Pickett accepted a position 
in the Boston Custom House. Within a year 
( namely, in September, 1866) he received the ap- 
pointment as postmaster of Worcester, a compli- 
ment most satisfactory to her citizens. With his 
characteristic promptness and foresight for the ac- 
commodation of the public, he sought new and more 
commodious quarters, and the postoffice was re- 
' moved from the old Exchange building to Pearl 
street, and for twenty years he was the efficient 
and progressive postmaster of Worcester. All re- 
forms that seemed to him necessary for the best 
interests of the service he adopted, and the capacity 
of the office grew with public demand, and the 
present efficient postmaster of Worcester (Mr. 
Hunt) was educated from a boy of sixteen in the 
Worcester postoffice while it was under the man- 
agement of the subject of this sketch. In fact, it 
may be said that other valuable assistants in that 
department were also early brought under the same 
care and training, and still continue in service. In 
T889 he was appointed by Governor Ames a mem- 
ber of the State Armory Commission. This choice 
was made by the governor at a time when it was 
proposed to erect at the expense of the state of 
Massachusetts a number of buildings to be used as 
lieadfiuarters for the militia of the state, and the 
stately structures, with their convenient appoint- 
ments, that may be seen in Worcester, Boston, Fall 
River, Lowell, Springfield and other cities within 
the state, attest the good judgment and wisdom of 
that commission of which General Pickett is still 
(190.;) a member, and for the service on which 
board he possesses special qualifications. To the 
military associations that originated through ser- 
vice performed in behalf of the country. General 
Pickett has given most cordial support. While no 
attemot is made to mention the list it was noted 
that he is a charter member of the Massachusetts 
Commandery of the Military Or{icr of the Loval 
Lesion; a member of the Grand Army of the Re- 
public ; president of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts 
Veteran Regiment Association ; and has been treas- 
urer of Post ID. Relief Fund from its organiza- 
tion. In 1S94 Hon. Henry A. Marsh, mayor of 
Worcester, selected him to serve as a member of 
the License Commission, and in the discharge of 
the perplexing duties devolving upon that board 
his integrity has never been auestioned. 

Since the day of General Josiah Pickett's retire- 
ment from the army, the citizens of Worcester have 
sought to do. him honor in various ways. It was 
the accepted belief that no street parade of any 
considerable ma.a'nitude. either of civic or military 
nature, could be handled in the streets of Worcester 
without General Pickett as chief marshal in com- 
mand, and it is but fair to say that from the mili- 
tary procession Julv 4, 1865, when the war regi- 
ments returned and were received by the citizens 
of Worcester, together with the many subsequent 
military and civic processions, under his direction 
as chief marshal, including the ceremony of laying 



52 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



the corner stone of the new city hall, September 12, 
1896, there was no confusion in the line, all moving 
on time with promptness and military precision. 

But the latest, perhaps the most deserving and 
lasting compliment paid this quiet, thoughtful, mod- 
est, loyal citizen and soldier, was the placing of his 
portrait upon the walls of Mechanical Hall, that 
famous forum of Worcester, the walls of which 
have echoed and re-echoed during the past half 
century as works of patriotism fell from the lips 
of Andrews, Philips, Sumner, Bullock, Devens, 
Hoar, and others. And upon those walls may be 
seen, as companion pictures, portraits of Washing- 
ton, Lincoln, Garfield, Andrews, General Ward, 
Sergeant Tom Plunkett and many others. The pre- 
sentation speech was made October 30, 1902, by 
General A. B. R. Sprague, a comrade thoroughly 
familiar with the military life of General Pickett, 
and the portrait was received by ex-Alderman Ed- 
ward M. Woodward, president of the Worcester 
County Mechanics Association. Both addresses were 
of high order, and in eloquent language expressed 
the high estimation in which the subject of this 
sketch is held by both his comrades and fellow citi- 
zens — the man who. from the impulse of the hour, 
performed his duty as he saw it, without thought 
of reward, and on account of such service was 
promoted from lieutenant to a brevet-brigadier- 
general is certainly worty of respect and special 
mention. The ancestral line of General Pickett has 
been traced to Nicholas Pickett, who was born about 
1649, and an inhabitant of Marblehead, Massa- 
chusetts, as early as 1670, then a young man about 
twenty-one years of age. He married a daughter 
of John Northey. Of his connection with other 
families of the same name, or from whence he came 
to Massachusetts, the records are silent. It is be- 
lieved that by occupation he was a mariner. He 
was living in 1692. He had children : Henry, born 
about 1676; Nicholas, born about 1678, died T825 ; 
John, born about 1680, died May. 1763: Dorothy, 
born about 16S2, married Thomas Stevens. 

(H) John Pickett, born about 16S0, died May, 
1763. was a fisherman, and later a shoreman, resi- 
dence Marblehead. February 16, 1727. he bought 
for 250 pounds a tract of land near the soutlierly 
end of the town, of Peter Levally. He married, 
January 17, 1704, Elizabeth Kelley, a daughter of 
John and Grace Keljey. Elizabeth died 1720. July 
22, 1737, he bought the mansion house once the 
homestead of his deceased father-in-law, John Kel- 
ley. John Pickett married (second), October 31, 
1721, Elizabeth Savory. By his will dated April 
I, 1763, we learn that he was owner of the schooner 
called the Pelican, and one-half of the sloop called 
the Lizard in which his son John carried on the 
coasting business. The w'ill also mentions a silver 
tankard. Children were: John, baptized February 
27, 1708-9; Grace, baptized July T7, 1709. died 
young: William, baptized July 27, 1712, died Decem- 
ber. 1761 : Joseph, baptized October 10. 1714, died 
April II, 177.^; Elizabeth, baptized July 27, 1717. 
died young: Thomas, baptized July 17, 1719-20, died 
about I7S3: Sylvester, baptized March 25, 1722. died 
young: Elizabeth, baptized May 17. 1724. married 
Thomas Swan, Jr.. living 1763: Nicholas, baptized 
November 6. 1726. died before 1762. 

(HI) Thomas Pickett was a mariner, and was 
lost at sea about 1753. He married Sarah, daughter 
of Richard Trevett. Jr., and wife whose maiden 
name was Elizabeth Ingalls. She died 1803. Her 
great-grandfather, Henry Trevett. is reported as the 
earliest resident of Marblehead bearing that family 
name. Their children : Sarah, baptized August 23. 
1743. died young: Sarah, bantized July 2, 1749. died 
unmarried ; Thomas, born June 27, 1750, died July 



10, i8ig; Elizabeth, baptized July i, 1753, died prior 
to 1763. 

(,1V) Thomas Pickett, born June 27, 1750. He 
removed to Beverly about 1775, where he died July 
10, iSig. He was by occupation, a sailmaker and 
married Miriam, daughter of Samuel and Mary 
Striker, April 18. 1775. She died in Beverly, August 
23. 1S39. March 8. 1788, he purchased a house and 
lot of William Abbott, and other real estate trans- 
actions were recorded in his name later. Their 
children were all born in Beverly, but baptized in 
the old Second Church in Marblehead, the parents 
taking them over the river in a small boat, there 
being no bridge over which to cross the harbor at 
that time. Their children were: Thomas, born 
December 10, 1775, died July 4, 1817; Miriam, born 
May 22, 1777, died October 17, 1818; married Moses 
Howard. Martha Trevett, born January 25, 1779, 
died February 14. 1811 ; married Nehemiah Roundy ; 
Richard, born November 8, 1780. died December 
20, 1864; John, born July 20, 1782, died June 13, 
r8oo; Sarah, born June 22, 1784, died February 24, 
1809: Samuel Striker, born March 8, 1786, died 
November 24, 1854: Margaret, born ]\Iay 31. 1788, 
was the second wife of Nehemiah Roundy ; Charles, 
born April 15, 1790, died August 8, 1812 ; Hannah, 
born July 9, 1792, died December 5, 1818, married 
.Amos Stickney ; Josiah, born February 19, 1795, 
died February 11, i860: Polly, born March 6, 1797. 

(V) Josiah Pickett, born in Beverly. February 
19. 1795. died February 11. i860: married. February 
10. 1822. Mary, daughter of John and Mary (Batch- 
elder) Creesy. She was born September 12, 1799, 
and died in 1879. He served in the United States 
navy, war of 1812, was taken prisoner and confined 
in Dartmoor prison, England. After returning 
liome was for some years a seafaring man. but 
finally adopted his former occupation — that of sail- 
making. Children : Josiah, born November 21, 
1822: John William, born December 30, 1824, shoe- 
niaker : married Susan H. Tucker ; Charles, born 
December 12, 1.S26. was a mason in Salem, and re- 
dded in Beverly: Mary Howard, born February 3, 
1820. died September 25. 1833 ; Sarah Frances, born 
December 25, i8.-!0, married Dewing Southwick ; 
Mary Elizabeth, born November 13. 1832. married 
Sannul Bell; ]Martha. born November 26. 1834, 
married James H. Kendall ; George Augustus, boni 
September 10, 1836, married Agnes G. ^Munsey; 
Hcpzihah Ann. born June 28, 1843. married (first) 
Charles L. Woodbury: (second) Charles Friend. 

(VI) Josiah Pickett, born in Beverly, Novem- 
ber 21, 1822. at the age of thirteen years left his 
home to carve out his own success in life. He mar- 
ried, December 2. 1847, Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob 
and Anna Burnham. born March 4. 1827. Since 
Afarch, 1855, the family home has been in Worcester, 
Massachusetts. (See sketch). Their children: 
Frank Lewjs. born January 25. 1849, died Novem- 
ber g. 1852 : William A., born October 12, 1857. 

Tlie foregoing closes the ancestral record of this 
branch of the Pickett family to date of July. 1905. 
There was a John Pickett, who landed at Salem, 
with Governor Endicott's company, in 1628, who 
removed to New London, Connecticut, and subse- 
quently married Ruth, daughter of Jonathan 
Rreustcr, and granddaughter of Elder William 
Brewster, of Mayflower celebrity. Their descen- 
dants are still living in that section of the state. 
The family name also appears among the earliest 
legislative, official and historical records of Virginia 
and North Carolina, and amon.g the conspicuous 
descendants of more recent date is the Confederate 
.trencral. George E. Pickett, of Gettysburg fame, in 
the civil war. Descendants of these early settlers 
are found in many of the southern states. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



no 



WILLIAM SEDLEY DOGGETT. Thomas 
Doggett (i), the immigrant ancestor of William 
Sedley Dogget. of Clinton. Massachusetts, was 
born in England in 1607. His name i-- spelled also 
Dogged. Dogcd and Daggett and many of his de- 
scendants have adopted the latter form of the name. 
He sailed for New England in May, 1737, from 
Yarmouth in the "Mary .-\nn," William Goose, 
master. He was registered as servant to Thomas 
Oliver of Norwich, England, for some untcnown 
reason, perhaps for lack of funds. Many of the 
emigrants who came here to better their fortunes 
worked out their passage after coming. He settled 
first at Concord. Massachusetts, removed to Marsh- 
field, then to Weymouth. He was planter and town 
officer, both at Weymouth and Marshfield. In the 
latter town he was selectman. He was fined six 
pence for being an hour late at town meetings May 
iS. and August 13, 1657. He took the oath of 
fidelit}- in 1657. His farm at Marshfield that he 
occupied in 1659 was adjoining that of Peregrine 
White, famous as the first child of English par- 
ents born in New England. The cellar of his house 
is believed to be in the field back of the house now 
or lately owned by Asa Sherman, of Marshfield. 
He was a constable in 1660, on the grand jury May 
28, 1666, and his name is constantly on the records 
in various public services and as holding minor 
offices for many years. 

He died at Marshfield, August iS, 1692. His 
first w-ifc died at Concord, August 23, 1642. He 
married (second) Elizabeth Fry. widow of William 
Fry. of Weymouth, and daughter of Jonas and 
Frances Humphrey, of Dorchester. She was prob- 
ably born in England and died 1652, at Weymouth. 
He married, at Marshfield, August 17, 1654, Joane 
Chillingsworth, widow of Thomas Chillingsworth, 
of Marshfield. She was born in England, died 
September 4, 16S4. at Marshfield. His children : 
John, born at Concord, 1642, see forward: Hannah, 

born at Weymouth, 1646, married Blaucher; 

Sarah, born 1650, married Sherman; Samuel, 

born 1652: Rebecca, born July 29, 1655, married 

Wilder. 

(11) John Doggett, son of Thomas Doggett (l), 
was born in Concord in 1642 and died at Marsh- 
field. 171S. He resided at Marshfield luost of his 
life, but in 1662 was at Hingham. where he lived 
for a time. His father gave him half the home 
farm. April 20, 1672, and he settled at Marshfield, 
where he was admitted townsman May 13, 1672. 
He was constable in 1682 and highway surveyor in 
16S4. He bought some adjoining land of Justus 
Fames. April i, 1686, for ten pounds, and one of 
the witnesses was Peregrine White. John Doggett 
and his brother Samuel hired the flats on the South 
river of the town, probably to cut the salt hay. 
He was admitted a freeman in June, i68g. He was 
on the grand jury, May 18, 1691, and highway sur- 
veyor 1692. He held the office of tithingman and other 
places of responsibility and trust in the town. He 
was admitted to the church. May 30. 1697, and was 
on the jury at Plymouth as late as December 13, 
1708. 

He married (first), at Hingham. 1673, Persis 
Sprague, daughter of William and Milicent (Eames) 
Sprague, of Hingham. She was born there Novem- 
ber 12, 1643, and died at Marshfield. 1684. He mar- 
ried (second), at Marshfield, September 3. 1691, 
Mehitable Truant, daughter of Maurice and Jane 
Truant, of Duxbury. He married (third), at New- 
bury, June 22. 1697, Rebecca Brown, widow of 

Isaac Brown, of Newbury, daughter of Bailey. 

She was born 1640 and died at Newbury, August 
2.1. 1731. Children of John and Persis Doggett 



were: John, born at Marshfield, June 28, 1674, died 
March 1, 1678-79: Thomas, born 1676, see forward; 
John, born February 26, 1674, probably died un- 
married. Children of John and Mehitable were : 
Isaac, born June 7, 1692, died September 21, 1692; 
Hannah, born December 28, 1693. 

(Ill) Thomas Doggett, son of John Doggett 
(2), was born at Marshfield. Massachusetts, 1676, 
and died there January 5, 1736-37. He gave his 
son Thomas part of the homestead, February 27, 
I70t. He was a juror at Plymouth. May 10, 1708, 
field driver, March 21, 170S-09, on the grand jury, 
January 10, 1710, highway surveyor, hogreeve, etc. 
He was a farmer and prominent in town affairs. 
He married (first), at Marslifield, January 18, 
1698-99. by Rev. Edward Thompson, E.xperience 
Ford, daughter of William Ford, of Marshfield. 
She was born 1676 and died there October 25, 
1728. He married (second), Sarah Phillips. He 
died January 5, 1736-37. and is buried in Cedar 
Grove cemetery, alongside the grave of his first 
wife. Both graves are marked with stones. His 
second wife married, at Pembroke, September 7, 
^737' Joseph Ford, of that town. The will of Thomas 
Doggett was dated April 19, 1736. The children: 
William, born October 30, 1699, died February 16, 
1699-1700; John, born 1702; Persis. born 1704; 
Thomas, born 1706. see forward; Sarah, born 1709, 
died unmarried, September 30, 1745; Experience, 
born 1714, died at Lebanon, Connecticut, 1730. 

(IV) Thomas Doggett. son of Thomas Doggett 
(3), was born at Marshfield, Massachusetts, 1706, 
and died at Middleborough, Massachusetts, August 
II. 1788. He married, at Marshfield, December II, 
1728, by Rev. Joseph Gardner, Joanna Fuller, a 
descendant of Sarrjuel Fuller, of the "Mayflower." 
So all their descendants are eligible to the May- 
flower Society. Thomas was a yeoman of Marsh- 
field and Middleborougli. He was executor of 
his father's estate and was part owner of the sloop 
"Middleborough" in 1732. He sold the homestead, 
March 6, 1741, at Marshfield, and bought at 
Marlboro, May 7. 1741, settling there before Sep- 
tember 7. His will was dated August 30, 1785, 
and proved October 6, 1788. Their children, all 
born at Marshfield, were: John, born 1729: Thomas, 
born 1731, died young: Mark, born 1733, died young; 
Jabcz, born March 3, 1734: Seth, born February 15, 
1736: Simeon, born January 4, 1738. see forward; 
Experience, born May i, 1740, baptized April 23, 
1741, died at Middleborough, 1830 ; Joanna, born 
March 16, 1742. 

(V) Simeon Doggett, son of Thomas Doggett 
(4), was born at Marshfield, January 4, 1738. and 
died at Middleborough, May 6, 1823. He and his 
brother Jabez served in the French and Indian 
war under Captain Benjamin Pratt, being at Oneida 
Station, New York, September 28, 1758. He was a 
carpenter by trade, as well as a farmer. In the 
revolution lie did not think it right for the colonies 
to rebel, and as a consequence he was forbidden by 
the town authorities to leave his farm. He and' a 
neighbor, who was suffering from the same cause, 
used to meet daily to talk it over, each remaining 
religiously on his own farm. He was a stanch 
Episcopalian in religion. He built his house on 
the highway from Taunton to Plymouth in the town 
of MiddIeboro_, and it was occupied for many gen- 
erations by his descendants. He married, February 
28, 1760. -Abigail Pratt, daughter of David Pratt, 
who was a native of North Carolina. The chil- 
dren: Thomas, born at Middleboro, April 14, 1761 ; 
Elkanah, born October 27. 1762 ; Simeon, born 
March 6, 1765, see forward; Abigail, born March 
4. I77.> 



54 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



(VI) Rev. Simeon Doggett, son of Simeon Dog- 
gett (s), was born in Middelboro, Massachusetts, 
March 6, 1765, and died at Raynham, Massachu- 
setts. March 20, 1852. His early associations were 
those of an orderly, industrious and pious Puritan 
home. His mother was a native of North Caro- 
lina and had brought with her from her southern 
birthplace the prepossessions of an Episcopal train- 
ing, and she took care to indoctrinate the iriind of 
her son with the tenets of the English church. 
The sterner influences of Calvinism in his home 
were softened by the grace of the Armenian liturgy, 
and while a heretical bias was thus given to the 
faith of the child an attachment to the English 
ritual was fostered which no length of years, no 
change of opinions, no constant use of other methods 
could weaken. His father, though not rich, was in 
easy circumstances and able to prepare and send 
his son to college. Simeon entered Brown Uni- 
versity, where he was graduated in 1788 at the 
age of twenty-three. He taught school for a year 
at Charlton, Massachusetts. His mind was directed 
to theology, and after being refused admission to 
one Congregational church, he was admitted by 
Rev. Dr. Hitchcock's church at Providence and he 
began to study. He lived six months in a planter's 
family in Virginia. In 1790 he went to live in the 
family of the celebrated Dr. West, of Dartmouth, 
and studied divinity under this eccentric but able 
teacher. He became a tutor in Boston University 
in 1 791 and held the position five years. In May, 
1792, he was licensed to preach by the Rhode Island 
Convention of Congregational ministers and began 
immediately to supply pulpits and preach at every 
opportunity. One of his early sermons was printed, 
and it was one of the first published in the United 
States which openly defended Unitarian views. 

In 1796 Bristol Academy in Taunton was 
formally opened with Mr. Doggett as first pre- 
ceptor, and his address was another milestone in 
theological emancipation in New England. He ac- 
cepted a call to settle at Mendon, Massachusetts, 
and was ordained January 17, 1813. He resigned liis 
position at the academy, but remained on the board 
of trustees. The Mendon church was large, in- 
fluential and supposedly orthodox, yet it called him, 
knowing his Unitarian views, unanimously and did 
not rescind the call when he required a change of 
the church creed before he became minister, .^fter 
a notable pastorate he was dismissed January 4, 
1830. at his own request, and settled at Raynham, 
where he wished to spend his declining years. His 
means placed him above the fear of want ; he had 
a good library and at Raynham leisure to enjoy 
it. He visited the southern states in 1834-35, and 
preached the sermon at the dedication of the Uni- 
tarian church at Savannah. He retired from the 
ministry at Raynham in 1845. His eighty-seventh 
birthday was celebrated by his townsmen and friends 
very elaborately and pleasantly. He died March 20, 
1852. He and his wife made a joint will. 

He married, October 29, 1797. Nancy Fobes, 
daushter of Rev. Perez Fobes, LL. D., and Prudence 
(Wales) Fobes. She was born at Raynham, Massa- 
chusetts. September 8. 1769. and died there Decem- 
ber 14, 1854. Their children: John Locke, horn 
at Taunton, September g. 1798: Samuel Wales, born 
at Taunton. July 9. 1800 : Simeon, born at Taunton, 
November it. 1802. died in Georgia, July 2T. 1826; 
Prudence \\'ales. born at RaVnham. September ,30, 
1804. died at Raynham. December 27. 1854 : Perez 
Fobes, born at Taunton. Massachusetts, June 2, 
1806. see forward ; Theophilus Pipon. born at Taun- 
ton. Jamiary 20, 1810: Abigail, born at Taunton, 



November 8, 1812 ; \Villiam Paley, born June 29, 
1814, died at Raynham, November 25, 1836. 

(VII) Dr. Perez Fobes Doggett, son of Simeon 
Doggett (6), was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, 
June 2, 1806. and died at Wareham, Massachusetts, 
January 28, 1875. In early life he lived on the farm 
and his education was obtained largely through 
his father's excellent library. He spent two years 
in Florida, working for his brother in mercantile 
business. He decided at length that he would study 
medicine and began in the office of Dr. Usher Par- 
sons, a distinguished physician at Providence. He 
attended the Jefferson Medical School at Phila- 
delphia for three years, and was graduated at the 
age of twenty-five years. He began innnediately to 
practice in Wareham, Massachusetts, and was fortun- 
ate from the outset in winning the confidence of his 
patients. He had a good practice. "For forty-four 
years he went in and out among his friends, neigh- 
bors and patrons in his own and surrounding towns, 
meeting with the success which a man may com- 
mand who is well equipped for his business." He 
died suddenly, falling in the street just after making 
a professional call in apparently full possession of 
his physical and mental health. He was sixty-nine 
years old. 

"Dr. Doggett was not a brilliant man and in some 
directions he was as simple-minded as a child, but 
it is believed that few men bring to the study and 
practice of their profession more of those peculiar 
and varied mental and physical qualifications which 
help to make up the true physician and surgeon." 
"Timid and slow in some departments of life, 
in everything relating to his profession he was always 
alert, quick to see, prompt to act. Proving him- 
self the well trained, patient, conscientiou's physician, 
whose judgment was not often at fault, he also 
demonstrated by delicate operations skillfully per- 
formed that a brilliant surgeon was only con- 
cealed by his narrow field and lack of opportunity," 
He married, November 26, 1832. at Wareham, 
Lucy Maria Fearing, daughter of William and Eliza- 
beth (Nye) Fearing. She was born at Wareham, 
August 27, 1807, and died there October 2. 1885. 
Their children, all born at Wareham. were : Charles 
Seymour, born March 9. 1836, resides Brookline, 
Massachusetts : William Sedley, born November 9, 
1S37, see forward ; Anna Maria, born November 5, 
1839 married in Sandwich, Massachusetts, Novem- 
ber 25, 1S58. by Rev. Nathan P. Philbrook. to Walter 
Danforth Burbank. son of Samuel Burbank : she 
died March 16. 1870; he was born in Sandwich, 
1834. and resided at Wareham ; died 1893. 

(VIII) William Sedley Doggett, son of Perez 
Fobes Doggett, MD. (7), was borri at Ware- 
ham, Massachusetts. November g, 1837. _ He was 
educated in the public schools of his native town. 
He chose a mercantile career and began as clerk 
in a Boston dry goods establishment, in which he 
was emnloyed five years. He then went to Glaston- 
bury, Connecticut, was associated with his brother 
in the manufacture of woolen goods and remained 
in that business for some years. He left there to 
conduct a general store at Warren, New Hamp- 
shire, where he remained eight years, doing a modest 
but prosperous business. He removed to Clinton, 
Massachusetts, and engaged in the dry goods busi- 
ness, .^fter a long, honorable and very success- 
ful career there, for a period of twenty years, he 
retired in 1897. Mr, Doggett has taken an interest 
in the affairs of Clinton and has invested largely 
in real estate there. He built one of the finest 
business buildings in the town, known as the Dog- 
gett Block. He is a Republican and has been stead- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



o:? 



fast in his support of the principles of his party. 
He has never cared for public office. He is a 
member of Clinton Lodge of Odd Fellows, and 
has been its treasurer for many years. 

Mr. Doggett married, at Auburn, New York, 
June 21, 1866, Frances Pomeroy Willson, who was 
born at Auburn, J.uly 5, 18+2. the daughter of 
Harvey and Fanny (Pomeroy) Willson. Her father 
was a merchant at Auburn. Their children are: 
Lucy Fearing, born at Auburn, August 7, 1867, 
married Ernest Silberburg and they have four chil- 
dren; Anna Frances, born at Warren, New Hamp- 
shire, May 3, 1871, married Edward Page and they 
have one child; Amy Willson, born at Clinton, Au- 
gust 31, 1884. 

MOEN FAMILY. The Moen family, for more 
than a half century prominently identified with the 
manufacturing interests of the city of Worcester, 
and whose members have borne a most useful part 
in promoting the development of its various in- 
stitutions, financial, educational and religious, is 
of French origin. 

Louis Moen and his wife, Madeleine D'Arquienne, 
came from France about 1808, and settled in the 
village of Wilna, Jeflferson county, New York. A 
son of Louis Moen by a former marriage remained 
in France, and his descendants still reside in Paris. 

Augustus Rene Moen, son of Louis and 
Madeleine (D'Arquienne) Moen. was born in Paris, 
France, September i, 1799. and was nine years 
old when he accompanied his parents to the United 
States. He was educated in Wilna, New York. 
About the year 1830. having made the acquaintance 
of S. H. Collins, the famous ax manufacturer of 
Colliusville. Connecticut, Mr. Moen removed to that 
place to accept a position as his business agent, 
or salesman. He subsequently conducted a hardware 
business on his own account in the city of New 
York, with residence in Brooklyn, Long Island. He 
afterward made his home in Stamford, Connecticut, 
where he died, August 24, 1867, after enjoying the 
entire confidence and esteem of a wide circle of 
friends. He was married, in Utica, New York, 
October 7, 1823, to Sophie Anne Le Clanche, who 
was also born in Paris, France, August 30, 1803, 
daughter of Nicholas and Maria (Pint) Le Clanche, 
the latter born in Treves, a city of Rhenish Prussia. 
Sophie Anne Moen survived her husband nearly 
a score of years, dying January 30, 1887. Their 
children were: 
• I. Philip Louis, see forward. 

2. Mathilda Louisa, born July 11, 1826. in Wilna, 
New York; married Lewis R. Hurlbutt, April 11, 
1854, and died January 25, 1881. 

3. Augustus M., born May 22, 1830, died in 
infancy. 

4. Cornelia .^nn. born October 3, 1832, in Col- 
linsville. Connecticut: married, November 21, 1855, 
William W. Rice, Esq., of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
afterward mayor of that city and member of con- 
gress from that district. She died June 16, 1862. 

5. Henry .\. R.. born September 30. 1838, in 
Brooklyn. New York ; married Mary Biddle, of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and died in London, 
England. November 10, 1887. 

6. Edward A., born May 31, 1841. in Brooklyn, 
New York : married Mary Sophia Cram, of Port- 
land. Maine, and died, 1903. 

Philip Louis Moen, eldest child of Augustus 
Rene and Sophie Anne (Le Clanche) Moen, was 
born in Wilna. New York, November 13, 1824. He 
began his studies in the town of his birth, and 
later in turn attended schools in Carthage, New 
York, Colliusville, Connecticut, and Brooklyn, New 



York. His studies in the later city were prepara- 
tory to a course in Columbia College, New York, 
but an eye ailment necessitated his discontinuance, 
and he turned his attention to commercial afifairs. 
setting himself to learn the details of the hard- 
ware trade, the occupation of his father. While 
thus occupied he made the acquaintance of Ichabod 
Washburn, of Worcester, Massachusetts, whose 
manufacturing interests required an occasional visit 
to the city of New York, where he marketed a por- 
tion of the product of his mills. In the year 1846 
the anniversary of the American Board of Foreign 
Missions was held in Brooklyn, and as delegate 
to that assembly the elder Mr. Washburn, accom- 
panied by his daughter, was assigned for the ses- 
sion to the home of Augustus R. Moen, where a 
friendly acquaintance was formed which later re- 
sulted in young Philip Moen coming to Worcester 
to claim the daughter as his bride. 

Philip L. Moen was first associated with his 
father-in-law, Ichabod Washburn, at his Grove street 
works, and later with Messrs. Henry S. and Charles 
Washburn in the rolling mill at Quinsiganiond vil- 
lage. This firm was dissolved January 12, 1849, 
and April i, 1850, Mr. Moen became a partner with 
his father-in-law in the W'ire-drawing industry, where 
he filled a much needed place, assuming the finan- 
cial conduct of the business, while Mr. Washburn 
directed the mechanical operations. Under the new 
firm the business prospered and increased in volume 
and from that modest beginning grew until many 
acres were covered with the great structures from 
which went out thousands of tons of wire to assist 
in the forwarding of civilization throughout the 
world. Mr. Moen had the satisfaction of living to 
enjoy the fruits of his energy and financial ability, 
coupled with the technical knowledge of such an 
expert mechanic as Ichabod Washburn. At the death 
of Mr. Washburn, in 1868, Mr. Moen succeeded 
to the presidency of the corporation, a position which 
he retained up to the time of his decease. 

The same characteristics which made Mr. Moen 
so successful in the world of business would also 
have rendered him a most valuable public official, 
but the demands of his life occupation were too 
pressing for many interludes. In 1854 and 1855 
he was a member of the city school committee, and 
in 1885, as a presidential elector from the Tenth 
District, he cast an imsuccessful ballot for James 
G. Blaine. Mr. Moen was always a Republican in 
politics, and ever, ready to assist in advancing the 
principles of his party. In his religious affiliations 
he was a member of the Union Congregational 
Church, and for many years one of its deacons. 
There was nothing relating to the good of human- 
ity that did not receive his hearty and generous sup- 
port. He was a zealous advocate and liberal sup- 
porter of the Young Men's Christian .Association, 
was president of its board of trustees, and as a 
life member he was the second largest contributor 
toward the construction of the elegant home of 
the .-Xssociation now standing in Elm street, in the 
city of Worcester. As an earnest advocate of 
higher education he lent his efforts in behalf of the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and was one of 
its trustees from its founding until his death, a 
portion of the time serving as treasurer of the 
corporation. He was a director of the Central 
National Bank, president of the board of trustees of 
the Memorial Hospital, director of the State Mutual 
Life Insurance Company, trustee of the People's Sav- 
ings Bank, trustee of the Home for Aged Women, 
director of the Free Public Library, president of 
the Worcester Countv Mechanics Association, and 
a member of the Worcester Agricultural Society. 



56 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Mr. Moen was a man of commanding presence, 
genial, courteous, conscientious, with frank, open 
manners, bearing all the marks of a gentleman of 
the old school. His loss from the social as well 
as the business world was deeply felt throughout the 
city, county, and even far beyond their bounds, 
wherever he was known. He died at his home in 
Lincoln street, Worcester, April 23, 1891. 

Mr. Moen married (first) November 17, 1846, 
Eliza Ann. daughter of Ichabod and Ann G. 
(Brown; Washburn. Their only child, Annie Eliza, 
died in her third year, March 21, 1854. The mother 
died January 25, 1853, in her twenty-seventh year. 
Mr. Moen married (.second) March 26, 1856, Maria 
Sloan Grant, of Chelsea, Vermont, a lineal de- 
scendant of Mathew Grant, one of the first settlers 
of Windsor, Connecticut. Their children were : 
Philip Washburn, of whom further ; Sophie, who 
resides in Boston; Cornelia, died in infancy; Alice, 
married Arthur Edward Childs, whose home is in 
Boston. 

Philip Washburn Moen, eldest child of Philip 
L. and Maria Sloan (Grant) Moen, was born in 
Worcester, Massachusetts, April 28, 1857. After 
receiving his early educational training at home, he 
accompanied his parents during a European tour, 
and on their return, after a final year in the high 
school, he entered Yale University, where he took 
the academic course, graduating with honors in 
1878. After his graduation he studied for two 
years in Sweden, after which he spent a year in 
travel on the continent. He then returned home 
and entered upon his business career, in May, 1881, 
joining the firm of Washburn & Moen, becoming 
first a director, later the treasurer, and in 1888 added 
to the latter duties those of general manager, re- 
maining in that twofold position until 1899, when the 
American Steel and Wire Trust Company pur- 
chased the business and plant, Mr. Moen being re- 
tained as one of the vice-presidents. As an executive 
officer he was ready and decisive, with thorough 
knowledge of the great industry, which was de- 
veloped to larger proportions under his manage- 
ment. Four years after the property was acquired 
by the American Steel and Wire Trust Company he 
relinquished connection with it, to busy himself 
with his personal afifairs. He held positions as a 
director of the Worcester Trust Company, the Wor- 
cester Consolidated Street Railway Company, the 
People's Savings Bank, the Worcester Electric Light 
Company, and trustee of the Massachusetts Lighting 
Company and the Boston and Worcester Electric 
Company. He was vice-president of the Massa- 
chusetts Home ^larkct Club, and a member of the 
Boston University and Union Clubs, also of the 
University and Yale Clubs of New York city. Al- 
though a Republican in politics, he seldom accepted 
public trusts, but was a liberal contributor to all 
legitimate expenses of the party, and might have 
held the office of mayor of the city of Worcester 
had he been willing to accept a nomination. He was 
from boyhood a member of the Union Congrega- 
tional Church, of which he became a tru-itee and 
chairman of the building committee. The Memorial 
Chapel, now a part of the church property, was a 
tribute from him, with his mother and sisters, to 
the memory of his father, Philip L. Moen, who was 
for many years identified with all its interests. To 
the Young Men's Christian Association of Worces- 
ter he lent his personal aid. and followed his father 
as cliairman of its board of trustees. 

Mr. Moen was married, in Edinburg, Scotland. 
June 5, 1890. to Margaret Brown, daughter of 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Leishman) Slruthets, of 



that city, her father being a retired manufacturer. 
These parents are now deceased. After his retire- 
ment from business Mr. Moen took special delight 
in amplifying and beautifying his summer home 
in the hill-town of Shrewsbury. To this attractive 
country seat was given the^name of Ard-na-Clachan, 
suggested perhaps from hfs associations with Scot- 
tish life and localities. Here he erected upon a 
most sightly outlook a charming residence, where, 
surrounded by the broad acres of a beautiful farm, 
he passed more than half his time in superintending 
the cultivation of fields and the growing of choice 
varieties of fancy domestic animals, in which he took 
special interest, and wdiich he delighted in exhibit- 
ing to the many friends who visited him. At the 
New England Fair, in connection with the Worcester 
Agricultural Society, in September, 1904, as a mem- 
ber of the conmiittee of arrangements and the re- 
ception committee, and also as a department super- 
intendent, he was constant and untiring in his ef- 
forts to make the occasion a triumphant success. 
Immediately after the close of the fair, although 
greatly fatigued, he went on business to Toronto, 
Ontario, returning home September nth, and on 
the night of the following day (September 12th) 
was stricken with apoplexy and passed away. His 
death was deeply felt by the citizens of Worcester. 
That such a generous-hearted broad-minded, public- 
spirited man. with high aspirations, guided as he 
was by a noble purpose, should be so suddenly re- 
moved from his place of usefulness, brought a sharp 
pang of regret to the community, and called forth 
the most profound sympathy. 

GOES FAMILY. John Goes (i) was born in 
174S, probably in Scotland. There is evidence that 
he came from a family of Scotch that lived near 
the southern boundary, and some of the s.ame name 
are living in Glasgow now. The name is distinct 
from the family of Coe in this country, at any rate. 
During the Revolution several soldiers by the name 
appear on the Massachusetts rolls. The name was 
apparently spelled Coas and Goose at times, and in- 
correctly. Samuel Goes, of Marblehead. was a 
.soldier in the Revolution. Joshua Goes, of Bridge- 
water (spelled Coesse) and William Coas, of Gape 
Ann, were soldiers also. It is possible that William 
Goes (or Goose), of East Greenwich. Rhode Island, 
was a relative of the Worcester settler. 

John Goes settled in Worcester before the Revo- 
lution. He was a farmer. His seven children were 
l)orn here, and so far as is known all of the Goes 
in thi;; country are descended from him and his 
wife Rebecca. He died in Worcester, June 24, 
1827. aged seventy-nine years. His children were: 
I. Daniel, born December 10. 1776. 2. Simeon, born 
July 9, 1781. died March 3. 1833- He married Sabra, 
and their children were: William, married Lucy H. 
Green. April 30, 1835 ; Simeon Sibley, born May 22, 
iSii, died September 22. 1847; John Green, born 
July 24. 1814; Levi Charles, born July 15. 1819. mar- 
ried Charlotte McFarland, November i. 1846 : Mary 
Augustus, born January 22. 1823. died July 8. 1838. 
3. William, born February 19. 1786, died April 17, 
1829. He married Jemima Chapin. September 14. 
1809. Their children were: Nancy Chapin. born 
September 10. 1810; Leonard Chapin. born July 7, 
tSt2: William Seth, born August 9. 1814; Rebecca 
Salome, born December 24, 1816, school teacher at 
Worcester: married James E. Budlong. of Provi- 
dence, December 15. 1843: William Seth Leonard, 
born May 29. 1820: Luther Draper, born October 
13. 1822. 4. Sallv. born January 23. 1787. married 
John Pratt, of Fitchburg. Massachusetts, December 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



57 



29, 181 1. 5. Mary, born November 28, 1791, died 
September 12. 1831. 6. Levi, born October 28, 1793, 
married Kezia. 7. Elijah, born May 19, 1795. 

(II) Daniel Goes, son of John Goes (l), was 
born and brought up on his father's farm in what 
is now called New Worcester, December 19. 1776, 
and died January 26, 1838. He married. October 
26, 1808. Roxana. or Roxlany (as the records have 
it) Gates. (See Gates Family Sketch). Their chil- 
dren were: I. Sally, born February 22. 1810, died 
February 16, 1832; Loring. born April 22, 1812; 
Albert, born September 29, 1813. died February 13, 
1837; Aury Gates (name originally was Horatio 
Gates), born January 22, 1816. 

(III) Aury Gates Goes, son of Daniel Goes (2), 
was born in "Worcester, Massachusetts, January 22, 
1816. and died December 2, 1875. He married Nancy 
Maynard, who was born in 1815, and died December 
I. 1842. He married Ann S. Gutting, May 29, 1845. 
He married (third) a Miss Gibson. He married 
(fourth) a Miss Winch. His children were: Jolm 
Henry, born in Springfield. Massachusetts, Sep- 
tember 25, 1840 ; Frederick Lewis ; Anna Rebecca, 
born March 25. 1847 : Mary, bursar of Radcliffe 
College, Gambridge. Alassachusetts ; Stella, died in 
Dresden. Bavaria, and body was lost at sea. The 
business career of the late Aury G. Goes is given 
with that of Loring Goes herewith. 

Loring Goes, third in line from John, the founder, 
is the son of Daniel Goes, and was born in Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts, April 22, 1812. He has been 
for many years the nestor of Worcester manufac- 
turers, the most wonderful instance of mental and 
physical capacity in the history of Worcester, if 
not of the country. At the date of writing he is the 
active head of the business that he established in 
1836, and at the age of ninety-four years is as alert 
and active as the majority of men are at sixty. 

Mr. Goes spent his boyhood on his father's farm 
in New Worcester, where he was born. He at- 
tended the district school in the winter months, but 
his education has been attained largely outside the 
schoolroom. He is a self-educated, as well as a 
self-made man. At the age of fourteen years he 
was apprenticed to Anson Braman, of Worcester, a 
carpenter, to learn his trade, and served with him 
three years. He then worked for Mr. Salmon 
Putnam until he was of age. Afterwards he worked 
for V-arious manufacturers of Worcester, construct- 
ing the wooden parts of woolen machinery then in 
use.  He had a contract with Henry Goulding and 
employed six or eight men. Among others whom 
he and his brother worked for was the firm of 
Kirnball & Fuller, makers of woolen machinery, 
and in 1S36 they bought the business, forming the 
co-partnership of L. & A. G. Goes. Originally this 
business was carried on at the mill privilege owned 
by the Goes interests for so many years, but in 1835, 
just before the Goes took possession, it had been 
removed to Gourt mills, where L. & A. G, Goes 
continued in business until October. 1839. when 
the Gourt mills were destroyed by fire. 

This disaster impaired their capital so much 
that they were unable to continue the business, and 
they went to Springfield to work for'Laurin Trask 
as pattern makers in his foundry. While there 
they invented a new and very convenient form of 
wrench. There were at that time two styles of 
wrenches in common use, one an English patent, 
the other known as the Merrisk or Springfield 
wrench. Roth hands had to be used to adjust either 
of these kinds of wrenches The Goes wrench could 
be adjusted by the same hand using it. leaving the 
other hand of the workman free. In order to 
obtain a patent on the device they returned to 



Worcester and sold the patterns of their spinning 
machinery, that had been saved from the fire, to 
Samuel Davis, a manufacturer of woolen machin- 
ery. With this money they secured a patent, is- 
sued to Loring Goes, April 16, 1841. 

The firm of L. & A. G. Goes proceeded to manu- 
facture wrenches under the patent. They were as- 
sisted by the late Henry Miller, a hardware dealer 
and prominent citizen of Worcester. He fitted up 
a shop in the northwest end of Gourt mill with 
the necessary machinery and tools, of which he 
retained the ownership, and he sold for the firm 
all of the wrenches they made. Early in 1843 the 
firm had paid for its plant, was employing three 
machinists, and had a contract with Galvin Foster 
& Go. to handle their product. The next winter 
L, & A. G. Goes moved to the shop of Albert 
Gurtis in New Worcester. 

At the close of their contract with G. Foster 
& Go., April I, 1848, they entered into a contract 
with Ruggles, Nourse & Mason to handle their 
product for the next five years. They bought for 
$5,500 the old woolen mill at New Worcester, in 
which they had worked in their youth. With the 
mill they got two houses and four acres of land, 
liesides the water privilege. The famous Captain 
Daniel Gookin was its first owner, and from him 
the great-grandfather of Loring and Aury G. Coes 
purchased it, and built a saw mill at the upper 
privilege, where there had been previously a beaver 
dam. When they moved to New Worcester they 
were employing from twelve to fifteen men, and 
making from five hundred to six hundred wrenches 
a month. They repaired and raised the mill, and 
put in new machinery and a new water wheel. Their 
contract with Ruggles, Nourse & Mason expired 
.^pril I, 1853. and after that L. & A. G. Goes sold 
their own goods. They had made many improve- 
ments in the wrenches, and in the special ma- 
chines used in constructing them. 

On July 21, 1853, with Levi Hardy, the firm 
purchased from Moses Gonant his shop, machinery 
and business, that of the manufacture of shear 
blades and knives for hay cutting machines. The 
co-partnership continued until May 2, 1864. after 
which the business was conducted by the firm of 
L. & A. G, Coes. who bought the interests of Levi 
Hardy. In 1865 a dam was built half a mile above 
their mill privilege to form a reservoir, and next 
year a new shop was built at the reservoir, and de- 
voted exclusively to the manufacture of shear blades, 
hay cutting knives, and similar goods. In 1867 a 
new dam was built a hundred rods below the 
reservoir. The two brothers dissolved the part- 
nership and divided the business. Loring Coes had 
the upper privilege with the knife business: Aury 
G. Coes having the lower one with the wrench 
business. At that time the annual product had in- 
creased to ten thousand wrenches or more. 

In 1871 Loring Goes began to manufacture 
wrenches also, the patents having expired. He 
erected the building at Goes Square for the pur- 
pose. At the outlet of the upper pond Loring Coes 
carried on an extensive business in the manu- 
facture of die stock for cutting sole leather and 
other purposes, as well as many kinds of blades. 

Aury G. Coes formed the firm • of A. G. Goes 
& Co. in partnership with his two sons, and con- 
tinued to carry on the very prosperous wrench busi- 
ness until his death in 1875. The sons continued 
under the same firm name until April i, 1888, when 
the two Coes firms were consolidated under the 
name of Goes Wrench Go. The officers were : 
President, Loring Goes : treasurer. John H. Coes, 
and secretary, Frederick L. Goes. The factory was 



58 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



then turning out about fifteen hundred wrenches 
a day. An important patent was issued to Loring 
Goes in 1880, on the "Knife Handle"' or scaled and 
riveted handle, also his invention, replacing the 
old round handle made of a single block. This 
model was very successful and was one of the 
causes that united the wrench business of the Goes 
family in one concern, as it is to-day. Improve- 
ments and inventions have followed, and improved 
models were adopted in 1895 and again in 1901 
and 1903. A little more than a month before his 
ninetieth birthday, Loring Goes bought out the in- 
terests of his partners, John H. and Frederick L. 
Goes, sons of his former partner, Aury G. Goes, 
and assumed the sole ownership of the wrench busi- 
ness. In June, 1902, he consolidated with it the 
corporation of Loring Goes & Go., Incorporated, 
making the capital stock of the Goes Wrench Co. 
$150,000. The knife business is conducted as part 
of the corporation under the name of Loring Goes 
& Go., Incorporated, Department. 

The knife business of the Goes family is hardly 
less famous than the wrench business. It has a 
reputation of producing steel goods of unsurpassed 
quality and merit. Mr. Goes has always followed 
as his maxim in business : "Make the best only, — 
Quality first. Price afterwards" and his reputation 
is literally world-wide. There is not a country in 
the world where the Goes Wrench is not in use. 
Even in the Levant there is a demand for this 
indispensable tool. Mr. Goes not only attends to 
his business in person, daily, but continues to make 
improvements and secure patents. The business 
has never been more prosperous than at present. 

In 1903 a new factory was completed, fifty by 
one hundred and fifty feet, with an ell fifty by fifty 
feet, and with new machinery and equipment the 
product of the company was doubled. The capacity 
of the knife shop within a few years has also been 
increased one hundred and fifty per cent. At the 
present time the Goes factories produce three hun- 
dred dozens of wrenches daily, about three thousand 
six hundred, and four and one-half tons of wrenches 
are completed every day the shop runs. The pay- 
roll includes one hundred and ninety hands, mostly 
machinists and mechanics of skill and experience. 
The Goes wrench shop is the largest wrench shop in 
the world. 

Mr. Goes was representative in the general 
court in 1864 and 1865. He has served the city in 
both branches of the council, and was for more than 
thirty years a director of the City National Bank. 
He is a director of the Worcester Electric Light 
Company. For some years he has been the oldest 
living manufacturer engaged in the hardware trade. 
He is fond of fishing, and has for many years made 
a fishing trip to Maine during the season. 

The present officers of the corporation are: 
President, Loring Goes ; vice-president and clerk, 
Frank Loring Goes : treasurer, Loring Goes ; 
directors, Fred W. Blackmer and Frederick Searle. 
Mr. Blackmer is counsel for Mr. Goes. (See sketch 
elsewhere in this workL Mr. Searle is a native of 
St. Austel. Cornwall. England, and for fifteen years 
has been superintendent of the works. He is also 
the master mechanic. He worked in the copper 
mines in Vermont and machine shops in Fitch- 
burg. Massachusetts, before coming to Worcester. 

Loring Goes married Harriet Newell Read, 
daughter of Russell Read, of Attleboro, Massachu- 
setts, January T4, 1835. She died in 1902. Their 
children were: i. Francis Russell, born June 9. 1837. 
2. Ellen Stanley, born October i, 1839. married 
Melvin O. Whittier. who was born in Mercer. Maine, 
May 13. 1834, and came to work at the Goes shop 



at the age of seventeen, worked up until he was 
superintendent of the manufacturing department in 
1865, and became partner of Loring Goes, his father- 
in-law, when L. & A. G. Goes dissolved. Mr. 
Whittier sold out to Mr. Goes in 1887 and re- 
turned to Maine to live, where he died in 1905. 
His daughter, Mabel Ella Whittier, married George 
Churchill, and they have a daughter, Hildegarde 
Churchill. 3. Anna Read, born November 12, 1842, 
died May 13, 1845. 4. Chester E. B., lives with 
his father, never in business. 

(IV) Frank Loring Russell Goes, son of Loring 
Goes (3), was born June 9, 1837, in Worcester, 
Massachusetts. He received his early education 
in the school of his native town. Later he at- 
tended Leicester Academy and Middleboro Academy. 
Early in life he showed an inclination for the mili- 
tary, and at the age of nineteen was a lieutenant 
in the city guards. When the civil war broke out 
he took an early opportunity to enlist in the Twenty- 
fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, and served with 
honor until nearly the close of the war, when by 
reason of disability he was compelled to return 
home. (For his business relations with the Goes 
firm and his father's business, see the sketch of 
Loring Goes preceding). 

He married in 1867, Persis J. Putnam, daughter 
of Salmon Putnam. (See Putnam Family Sketch.) 
The death of Mr. Goes in 1871, at the early age 
of thirty-four, was doubtless hastened, if not 
directly due to exposure in the army. He left 
one child. Frank Loring, born August 30, 1872. 

(V) Frank Loring Goes, son of Frank Loring 
Russell Goes (4), was born in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, August 30, 1872. He attended, the Wor- 
cester public and high schools, and took a course 
at Worcester Academy. He also attended a priv:.te 
school at Northboro, Massachusetts. At the age of 
seventeen he went into the shops of the Goes 
Wrench Co. to learn the business. He work'.d in 
every department and learned the trade thoroughly. 
He was placed in charge of the knife factory in 
1892. When Loring Goes bought out his partneis 
in 1902. he was put in charge of the main office. He 
is a member of the Commonwealth Club, the Wor- 
cester Golf Club, and the Hardware Club of New 
York. In politics he is a Republican. On July n. 
1891, he married Cora Braman, daughter of Charles 
Braman. of Providence, Rhode Island. Her mother 
was Priscilla Braman. nee Wright, born in North- 
boro. Massachusetts. The children of Frank Loring 
Goes are: Loring, born September 17, 1892; Russell 
Read, born August 26, 1894. 

EDWARD A. GOODNOW. In 1632. twelve 
years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 
Rock, three Goodnow brothers sailed from Eng- 
land to join the enterprise beyond the stormy At- 
lantic. They shared the hardships of those who 
laid the foundations of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusets. Among the three brothers who came to 
these shores was Thomas, who settled at Sudbury. 

(II) Thomas Goodnow, son of the English 

branch, married Jane , and had a son 

named Samuef. 

(III) Samuel Goodnow, son of Thomas (2), 

born February 28, 1646, married Mary  

by whom a son Samuel was born. 

(IV) Samuel Goodnow, son of Samuel (3), 
born November 30, 1675. died about 1720, married 
Sarah Brigham, and they had a son Thomas. 

(V) Thomas Goodnow, son of Samuel (4), 
born March 18, 1709, married Persia Rice, of Marl- 
boro, April 17, 1734, and they had a son Edward. 

(VI) Edward Goodnow, son of Edward (S), 



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6o 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



born October 30, 1742; married Lois Rice, and they 
had a son Edward. 

Edward (6) removed from Sudbury to Prince- 
ton, Massachusetts, and in 1786 built the old Good- 
now homestead, still standing and owned by his 
grandson, William B. Goodnow, the brother of our 
subject proper. 

(.VII) Edward Goodnow, son of Edward (6), 
born December 1776, married Rebecca Beaman. He 
inherited his father's estate. Rebecca Beaman took 
her turn with other girls in going to Worcester, 
thirteen miles, to get the mail. She went on horse- 
back and the trail was through the woods, her only 
guide being the "blazed" trees. To Edward and 
Rebecca Goodnow were born six sons and two 
daughters ; all were born in Princeton, and with 
one exception grew to manhood and womanhood. 
These children were: Erastus D., Edward A., 
Jonas B., Franklin, William B.. Harriet E., Louis 
R. and Abel. The father died in 1852, and the 
mother in 1870, both in Princeton. 

(VIII) Edward Augustus Goodnow,. son of 
Edward and Rebecca (Beaman) Goodnow, was born 
at the old homestead, Princeton, July 16, 1810. Al- 
though the New England boy of his time had much 
hard work to perform, yet the people believed in the 
value of a good education. To this lot he of whom 
we write was no exception to that rule. His boy- 
hood days were spent for the most part on his 
father's farm. After attending the district school 
he attended three terms at Hadley Academy. With 
this schooling he w'ent forth to meet and to do bat- 
tle with the practical side of life's career. In 1823, 
when he was thirteen years old, his parents opened 
an inn at their homestead, on the Connecticut and 
Bo.^ton road. So well was the house kept that it 
soon became famous. Teamsters and stock men were 
only too glad to reach its homelike rooms and sit 
around its bountiful tables. This inn was kept 
open twenty-seven years. Young Edward mingled 
with the travelers and merchants wdio stopped there 
and here he first acquired his taste for mercantile 
pursuits. When twenty years of his life had passed, 
he left the scenes of farm life and began clerking 
in the store of his older brother. Erasmus Good- 
now, in Princeton. It was soon discovered that he 
had sought and found the calling for which he was 
especially adapted. So well did he succeed in his 
new role that at the end of two years service, he 
was admitted as a partner in the business. Quick 
to observe the trend and fashion of the times, this 
firm soon improved their golden opportunities and 
commenced the manufacture of palm-leaf hats, in 
connection with the general merchandise business, 
the junior partner performing much of the outside 
work. His early farm life fitted him well to care 
for such matters, including the teaming for the 
firm. For several seasons he might have been seen 
rising at two o'clock in the morning and driving 
to Boston, a distance of forty-five miles. There he 
would sell such commodities as his load from 
his country home was made up of, and re- 
load with goods and supplies bought in exchange, 
to be used in the general store at home. Much of 
the time consumed by such long and frequent trips 
was made while others slept. But it was a .good 
schoolmaster to him. Antagonism is the law of de- 
velopment, and hence these early hardships proved 
but stepping stones to a marked and prosperous 
career. 

Like many other sensible and thoughtful young 
business men, Mr. Goodnow sought out a loving 
vvife. in the person of Harriet Eagg. of Princeton. 
After five years of married life the angel of death 
called her from his side. Subsequently he married 



her sister, Augusta, by whom one son was born, 
Henry Bagg Goodnow, who died in infancy. Af- 
fliction again settled down on the household of Mr. 
Goodnow and death claimed the second companion. 
Later he married Catherine B. Goodnow, who jour- 
neyed with him for a quarter of a century and who 
was an active member of the Congregational church 
for about twenty-five years, when she passed from 
earthly scenes. 

In 1836, after four years of partnership, the 
business was expanded by admitting another member 
to the firm, with the view of manufacturing shoes. 
The new firm relations existed eleven years, when 
Mr. Goodnow realized that the domain of Prince- 
ton was limited as a trade center for the carrying out 
of his plans, so, after having been in trade in his 
native town fifteen years in all, he went to Shel- 
burne Falls in 1847, where he formed a partnership 
with the great cutlery establishment of Lamson, 
Goodnow & Company, but soon finding tlie damp 
air of Deerfield Valley did not agree with him, he 
removed to Eaton, central New York, remained 
there for a time, and finally returned to New Eng- 
land and located at Worcester, in 1852, when the 
city had but 18,000 people. Being familiar with the 
shoe business, Mr. Goodnow opened a retail shoe 
store, which he pursued for four years, and then 
changed to the wholesale trade in the same line of 
goods. To him belongs the honor of opening the 
first jobbing house in Worcester. Success crowned 
his efforts, and sales ran from one hundred thous- 
and to four hundred thousand dollars per annum. 
Integrity in his business methods was the key to 
his success. After a successful business of fourteen 
year in Worcester, Mr. Goodnow retired from active 
mercantile life. 

Concerning the political belief of Mr. Goodnow 
it should be said that he was one of the stanch 
Abolitionists, when it meant something to advocate 
such a cause. He was one of eight persons to 
adopt the principles of the Free-soil party, and sub- 
scribe to the principles, "We inscribe on our banner, 
'Free soil, free speech, and free men' and under it 
we will fight on, fight ever, until triumphant vic- 
tory shall reward our exertions." When gun number 
one sounded the alarm from Fort Sumter in i85i, he 
was not surprised. !More than a dozen clerks from 
his own place of business, one after another, marched 
to the battlefield ; all were aided by him, and one 
of the brave number was under full pay by him 
during the entire time of his military service, and 
his business place open for him upon his return 
from the Southland, when victory was for the Union. . 
When Governor Andrew proposed to raise a col- 
ored regiment and equip it for the field, he gave 
five hundred dollars for its expenses, heading the 
subscription paper for that amount. When the 
war cloud was darkest and the finances of the coun- 
try were in peril, he subscribed liberally for the 
first bond issued. He thoughtfully erected mar- 
ble tablets to the memory of fifteen high school 
students who gave their young lives on the altar 
of their ' native land. As an object lesson to the 
youth of the city, he placed a bust of General 
Grant in the high school. Among other benefac- 
tions was a life sized oil portrait of President Gar- 
field, to be hung in the hall of the Mechanics' As- 
sociation. The following resolution was passed by 
the Association : 

Kesohrif. Tliat the Worcester County Mechanics' Association 
hereby tenders a note of thanks to Mr. Edwarii .\. Goodnow for 
his public-spirited liberality in presenting to the associ.ition a 
fuU-leneth portrait of James .\. Garfield, late president of the 
United States. Attest; 

William A. Smith. Clerk. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



6i 



A few years later he presented tlie same asso- 
ciatieui with a portrait of Henry Wilson. 

-Mr. Goodnow was never an otfice seeker, but did 
hold the position of trustee of the State Reform 
School, under appointment of Governor Andrew and 
by re-appointment by Governor Bullock, serving in 
all seven years, bpon retirement from busmess, 
he spent two years -m leisure, but that was enough 
to convince him that man is happiest when employed, 
so he accepted the position of president of the hirst 
National bank, tendered by a unanimous vote, ilere 
Mr. Goodnow was not a ligurc-head, but the real 
head. All the paper passed through his hands. He 
took some risks that more timid men would not 
have dared to take. He secured large deposits by 
a liberal attitude toward patrons of the bank. When 
he took the office, the bank stock was quoted at 
one hundred and ten ; but under his good manage- 
ment, the par value was doubled. So much was 
his business sagacity appreciated by the stock-hold- 
ers, that a bet of complimentary resolutions 
were passed, thanking hmi and giving him 
the credit for building up a great banking 
business — second to none in the Commonwealth. 
While Mr. Goodnow was a busy man of 
affairs, he found pleasure in spending much ot 
his means in way of magnificent gifts of a philan- 
thopic and truly charitable nature. He gave not to 
be seen of men, but where good could be accom- 
plished — where the condition of his fellow men 
could be bettered. The list of such generous acts 
is indeed too lengthy to insert in a work of this 
character but a few will here be noticed briefly. 
Beginning with his native town, Princeton, he gave 
a library building known as the "Goodnow Ale- 
morial Building," which consists of a library, read- 
ing-room, two school rooms, with desks for forty 
scholars each, together with an endowment of five 
thousand dollars. This is indeed a magnificent 
memorial, "a thing of beauty is a joy forever." 
To educational institutions, he has ever been more 
than generous. Among such instances may be named 
the Female Seminary at Mount Holyoke, in way of 
scholarship, parks and other matters, all amounting 
to twenty-five thousand dollars. He gave to the 
Iowa College at Grinnell ten thousand dollars to re- 
place buildings destroyed by a terrible cyclone. Sub- 
sequently he gave five thousand dollars for the 
erection of a cottage named the Mary Grinnell Mears, 
in honor of the wife of Rev. D. O. i\Iears, D. D. To 
the Wellesley College and the Moody School at 
Northfield he gave each five thousand dollars. His 
anti-slavery sentiments were expressed by the gift of 
five thousand dollars to Washburn College in 
Kansas, to found a John Brown professorship. The 
colored race has not been overlooked by the phil- 
anthropist, for he has repeatedly been a contributor 
toward the erection of buildings for the colored 
school at Hampton, Virginia, also at Oberlin, Ohio; 
Berea College, Kentucky, and Lincoln College, Penn- 
sylvania. Not content with the donating of his 
wealth on this side of the seas, he was the first man 
to erect a building on the continent of Africa for the 
education of women. Thus he commenced the 
laudable work of Christianity and civilization among 
the female portion of "Darkest Africa." This is 
in connection with the Huguenot Seminary, Wel- 
lington, Cape of Good Hope, Africa. The building 
known as Goodnow Hall was constructed after Mr. 
Goodnow's plans, and then shipped to Africa ready 
to be erected. The expense was over fifteen thous- 
and dollars. 

In connection with his church benefactions it 
should be here recorded that he was long associ- 
ated with the Plymouth Congregational Church of 



Worcester, to which he was a very generous do- 
nator as the years and decades rolled by. Among 
these benefactions must not be forgotten the superb 
chime of bells which each week sounds from the 
belfry of this church edifice. The same was given 
in memory of his late wife, Catherine B. Goodnow ; 
also, as a memorial of his only son, Henry B. 
Goodnow, who died in infancy, he gave an organ to 
this church, the total expense being ten thousand 
dollars. In 1887 he gave five thousand dollars to- 
ward the Catherine B. Goodnow Fund of the Young 
Women's Christian Association of Worcester. To- 
ward the completion of this magnificent building he 
gave not less than thirty thousand dollars. 

Although having lived four score and three years, 
until recently he of whom we write saw with un- 
dimmcd eye, and was exceptionally robust for one 
so far advanced on the journey of life. He was a 
constant attendant at the church of his choice. In- 
deed, the life of Mr. Goodnow was one of marked 
success, and of such noble characters the world has 
none too many. He died February i, 1906, after an 
illness of only two days, and a large concourse of 
sorrowing friends followed him to his last resting 
place. 

SA^IUEL R. FIEYWOOD. In sketching the 
useful and eventful career of Samuel R. Fleywood, 
founder of one of the most enterprising and suc- 
cessful manufacturing establishments of the city of 
Worcester, it is to be noted that his influence has 
touched almost every branch of trade and public 
interest in his community within the period of more 
than a half century. He has not only been one of 
the principal factors in making Worcester an im- 
portant manufacturing center, but a leader in the 
promotion of various other enterprises — financial, 
commercial, transportation, etc. He has rendered 
valuable service to the public in various official sta- 
tions, and has liberally aided with his influence, 
personal effort and means, all that goes to make up 
the higher life of the community — the churches, 
school? of all degree, and those beneficent insti- 
tutions which minister to the needs of the suffering 
and afflicted. In all the relations of life he has so 
acquitted himself as to receive sincere recognition 
as an ideal citizen. 

Mr. Heywood was born at Princeton, Worcester 
county, Massachusetts, November 24. 1821, and was 
reared upon a farm, where he developed attributes 
of a' model manhood — a splendid physique, which 
enabled him to carry into his octogenarian years 
the ambitions and abilities which in ordinary men 
wane in the sixties ; and those habits of industry and 
persistency which were to form the foundations of 
a career of unusual usefulness 5ind success. As a 
lad he attended the ordinary country schools, and 
was for two terms a student in the Westminster 
.■\cademy, defraying his. expenses with the earnings 
from his own labors. When about twenty years old 
he entered upon a business life as an employe of E. 
1). and E. A. Goodnow, of Princeton, manufacturers 
of boots and shoes, and proprietors of an extensive 
general store. In August, 1848, he located in Hub- 
bardstown, as senior inember of the firin of Hey- 
wood & Warren, general merchants, bringing to 
the business a small amount of capital of his own 
earning, and a character which afforded him all the 
credit he desired. In the course of three years 
he purchased the interest of his partner, and car- 
ried on the business until January, 1855. This ex- 
perience marks the end of his preparation for the 
larger enterprises upon which he was now to enter. 
He had not only acquired considerable means, but 
he had developed his business abilities to such a de- 



62 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



gree as to justify him in seeking a wider field for 
his effort, and he decided to remove to Worcester. 
Here he became a partner of one of his first em- 
ployers, E. A. Goodnow, under the style of Good- 
now & Heywood, in the wholesale and retail boot 
and shoe trade. This partnership was dissolved in 
the following year, Mr. Heywood taking the retail 
trade, in which he continued until 1864. He at once 
engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes, ex- 
tending his operations from time to time, constantly 
reaching out into larger and more distant markets, 
and introducing new goods as experience demons- 
trated their worth and acceptability. The Heywood 
boot soon came to be known as the best product 
in its line, from what was for many years the lead- 
ing city in the country in this class of manufacture. 
Later, as a more cultivated taste warranted the 
making of a lighter and more dressy style of foot 
wear, he turned his attention to the manufacture of 
that style of goods. At whatever stage, his house 
maintained its high reputation by its use of only 
the very best obtainable materials, the most finished 
workmanship, and strictly honorable business deal- 
ings. To the present time the product of the Hey- 
wood factory is the standard in men's high-grade 
foot wear, stylish, perfect fitting and durable, made 
in all the leading styles and shapes, and in sizes 
and widths to fit any foot. Aside from the great 
and constantly increasing demand for the Heywood 
goods from every part of the United States, for 
fifteen years past they have been extensively sold 
in Canada, England, Honolulu, Havana, Buenos 
Ayres, Cape Town, and other foreign markets. The 
constant development of this industry necessitated 
various enlargements of the factory, and changes 
in the managerial force. In 1879 M""- Heywood 
erected the Wachusett building on Winter street, 
which was then one of the largest and best equipped 
boot and shoe factories in the country. This estab- 
lishment, after repeated enlargements, now occu- 
pies a frontage of one hundred and forty feet on 
Winter street, eighty-five feet on Harding street, 
and a wing ninety-one feet in depth at the east end, 
near Grafton street, all the principal buildings be- 
ing five stories in height. The plant is equipped 
with the latest and most improved machinery, and 
is a model one in every respect. At whatever 
stage of the development of this gigantic enterprise, 
Mr. Heywood has given to it his close personal atten- 
tion, maintaining a close oversight of every detail — 
the selection of material, the operation of the Ina- 
chinery at every step of manufacture, besides keep- 
ing a close touch with the market, its conditions and 
possibilities, and introducing innovations in style 
of goods, seeking new outlets for his product ; and, 
in short, ever mainfaining for his house a position 
of leadership which was unquestioned throughout 
the country. As they came of proper age, Mr. Hey- 
wood introduced his sons to the business, as will 
appear in connection with their respective names. 
In 1884 the Heywood Boot and Shoe Company 
was incorporated, with Mr. Heywood as president. 
a position which he has occupied to the present 
time, abating nothing of his deep personal interest, 
and exercising general managerial powers. 

While thus busied with the building-up and con- 
duct of a great establishment which would seem- 
ingly tax the abilities of any one man, Mr. Heywood 
has given his aid to various enterprises having a large 
place in the business life of the city. In 1865 he 
became a director in the Central National Bank of 
Worcester, serving as such until February. 1903. 
when that institution was absorbed by the Worcester 
Trust Company. In 1864 he was also a charter m;ni- 
ber of the People's Saving Bank, and a member 



of its board of trustees and linance committee from 
that time until July, 1884, when he became presi- 
dent, in which position he still continues. He has 
also for many years been a director in the Cotton 
and Woolen Mutual Insurance Company of Boston. 
In all these various positions he has displayed the 
same high ability and conscientiousness which have 
characterized him in his personal concerns. He has, 
besides, rendered inestimable service to the com- 
munity and commonwealth in various important po- 
sitions where he labored with rare sagacity and un- 
failing devotion to the interests committed to' his 
keeping. He was a member of the common council 
in 1859. and of the board of aldermen for two 
years following. In 1873 and 1874 lie was again 
elected to the common council, and in the latter 
year was president of that body. In 1875 he repre- 
sented the city of Worcester in the Massachusetts 
house of representatives, and w-as re-elected for the 
two succeeding years, serving on the railroad com- 
mittee each year. He was an ardent admirer of 
that splendid old-school statesman (and his intimate 
personal friend) Hon. George F. Hoar, was an early 
and efficient advocate of his election to the United 
States senate for his first term, and as a member 
of the legislature was largely instrumental in ef- 
fecting a result which gave to the country the serv- 
ices of one of its grandest men. A man of strong 
convictions and unflinching moral courage, Mr. 
Heywood has never allowed considerations of per- 
sonal popularity or expediency to govern his con- 
duct as a citizen. He was an original "Free Soil- 
er," and cast his first vote for James G. Birney for 
president, and labored in his behalf as zealously as 
though defeat w-ere not foreordained. Mr. Hey- 
wood aided in the organization of the Republican 
party in 1856, and was ever a vigorous upholder of 
its principles. In his political conduct he only re- 
garcled legitiinate and honorable ends to the good 
of the nation and communitj', regardless of all per- 
sonal considerations. That he held office from time 
to time was in no instance due to his self-seeking, 
but to the estimation in which he was held in the 
community as a man well equipped, in heart and 
brain, for the service of his fellows. His well known 
interest in education and his broad humanitarian- 
ism led to his being called to connection with the 
system of state charities of the commonwealth. In 
1877 he was appointed by the governor a trustee of 
the State Reform School at Westboro, and he was 
one of the seven trustees retained by that executive 
out of the entire number (twenty-one) when in 
1879 the state schools at INIonson. Lancaster and 
Westboro were by act of the legislature consolidated 
under one management. Fle held this position until 
1888. giving to its duties much thought and labor, 
marked with a genuine feeling of sympathy for 
unfortunate youths, and a spirit of genuine helpful- 
ness toward them, He has always been among the 
foremost in the establishment and maintenance of 
the ennobling institutions of this city, and one of 
his most highly appreciated acts was the creation 
of the much needed library at the Memorial Hos- 
pital. His example and precept have ever been 
recognized as a power for practical temperance. 
Without pretension to oratorical powers, he possesses 
the faculty of impressing his hearers through his 
evident sincerity. A Congregationalist in religion, 
he was formerly with the Salem Street Church, 
and with Plymouth Church from its organization. 
He was prominent in its creation, active in all per- 
taining to its interests, especially in cnnnectinn 
with the erection of its edifice and the extinguish- 
ment of its building debt. His personal benefactions 
are ever liberal, being freely bestowed for legiti- 





l/%zy^^?l^aju /O ^a^^?^^-'^^^^^^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



63 



mate religious, moral and charitable work abroad as 
well as at home. His personal character is best 
discerned by considering the relations which have 
ever subsisted between himself and his hundreds 
of employees, who recognize in him a apprecia- 
tive personal friend as well as a just and kmd em- 
ployer. A half century of uninterrupted busmess 
life is a record made by but few men of large affairs, 
vet today, thanks to his native vigor of mind and 
body, pure life and equable disposition, he maintams 
an active interest in the great business with which 
his name will ever be associated, and in all the varied 
community interests which have engaged his atten- 
tion during his entire career. 

In June. 1S56, Mr. Heywood married Harriet 
Butler Milliken, daughter of Z. T. and Anna B. 
Milliken, of Chelsea. Massachusetts, natives of 
Franklin county, Maine. Of this marriage were born 
five children, three of whom were sons, two coming 
to maturitv, one passing away in infancy and one still 
remains to share with his father the duties and 
responsibilities of his large concerns. The children 
were '. 

1. George Ezra, born January 26, 1859, died the 
following month. 

2. Frank Everett Heywood, born April 20, 
i860. He was most promising from his 
youth. When seventeen he graduated from the 
Worcester Classical High School, and was then for 
a year a student at Easthampton. He entered Harv- 
ard University, where he was not only a close 
student, displaying a special interest in chemistry, 
but was prominent in athletic sports. He graduated 
with the class of 1882, and the same year was ad- 
mitted to partnership with his father as a member 
of the tirm of S. R. Heywood & Company. At the 
incorporation of the Heywood Boot and Shoe Com- 
pany in 1884 he became vice-president and treasurer, 
and served in that twofold capacity until his death, 
October 25, 1899. He was also a director in the 
Citizens* National Bank of Worcester. He was 
a man of excellent business ability, and admirable 
personal character — qualities which marked him as, 
in the course of events, the fit successor of his hon- 
ored father in the headship of the Heywood Com- 
pany. He died universally mourned, and it was 
noted by a local chronicler that seldom had the 
citv seen evidence of such sincere and general grief 
as that which followed him to his untimely grave. 
December 18, 1884, he married Harriet Dodd Jen- 
nings, born December 4, 1864, daughter of Horace 
N. and Maria (Dodd) Jennings, of East Orange, 
New Jersey. His widow resides in> Worcester, with 
her children: Chester Dodd. born October 12, 1887; 
Philip Butler, born March 24. l88g: Florence Blair, 
liorn May 18, 1893: Richard, born May 8, 1S97. 

3. Caroline Louise Heywood, born September 13, 
1862. died September 16. 1866. 

4. Henrietta Butler Heywood, born May 15, 1865, 
died November 25, 1868. 

Albert Samuel Heywood, only surviving son of 
Samuel R. Heywood, was born May 31, 1867. He 
was fitted for college in Worcester High school and 
Worcester Academy. He was graduated from the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the class 
of 1892. He became connected with the General 
Electric Company of New York, and was winning 
distinction in the world of electrical science when 
occurred the death of his brother, Frank Everett 
Heywood. and this untoward event made it desira- 
ble that he should abandon a calling in which he 
was deeply interested in order to share the burdens 
of the father. He accordingly resigned his posi- 
tion January I, 1900, and became vice-president 
and treasurer of the Heywood Company, the po- 



sitions which had been rendered vacant by the death 
of his brother. Taking up his new duties methodic- 
ally and with cheerful alacrity, he has proven him- 
self an earnest and devoted man of aifairs, and a 
worthy companion as well as son to his honored 
parent. September 28, 1899, he married Laura 
Chester Foute, of Atlanta, Georgia, who was born 
in Adairsville, Georgia, October 30, 1873, daughter 
of William Edward and Eliza (Houston) Roberts 
Foute. Their children are ; Edward Foute Hey- 
wood, born July 17, 1900; Harriet Butler Heywood, 
born August 16, 1901 ; Dorothy Heywood, born 
October 5, 1902. 

OBADIAH BROWN HADWEN, who enjoys 
national reputation as a scientific horticulturist and 
pomologist, is a native of Rhode Island, born in 
Providence, August 2, 1824, son of Charles and 
Amy Sherman (Brownell) Hadwen. He comes of 
sturdy English ancestry, descending from John 
Hadwen, of Rochdale, England, who was a settler 
in Newport, Rhode Island, in early colonial days. 
His great-aunt was the wife of Obadiah Brown, 
who was prominent as a pioneer in the cotton-spin- 
ning industry in America. Charles Hadwen, father 
of Obadiah B, Hadwen, was a resident of Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, where he was a leading manu- 
facturer and merchant. In 1835 'le retired from 
these occupations and removed to Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, and purchased and located upon the Wing 
Kelley farm, near Tatnuck. 

Obadiah Brown Hadwen attended in turn the 
Friends' Schools in Providence, Rhode Island, the 
Clinton Grove Institute in Ware, New Hampshire, 
where he was a student for four winters' terms, 
and the Worcester (Massachusetts) Manual Labor 
School, where he remained for one term. The prin- 
cipal preparation for his peculiarly useful life work, 
however, was obtained upon the parental farm near 
Tatnuck, where he developed those tastes and capa- 
bilities which marked his career. In 1844, the year 
before attaining his majority, he came into posses- 
sion of a portion of the home farm which he has 
since occupied for the long period of sixty-two years. 
For forty years of this time he followed market 
gardening, and a nursery and dairy business. Mean- 
time he greatly enhanced the value of the property 
by the erection of new buildings. But his principal 
delight was practical and scientific agriculture and 
horticulture, and in these lines his deep knowledge 
and sound judgment found general acknowledgment. 
He adorned his grounds with trees of his own 
planting, in great profusion, of the most beautiful 
specimens of their kind, many which were -unknown 
in that region until introduced by him, and which 
have attracted the admiring attention of horticult- 
urists from every part of the LTnited States. Amid 
the changes incident to the great expansion of a 
thriving industrial city, the rural surroundings of 
his farm have been almost entirely obliterated, but 
his immediate home and the grounds pertaining to 
it have been preserved intact — a veritable nis in urbc. 

Mr. Hadwen's accomplishments as a horticult- 
urist found early recognition, and for more than 
half a century he has been known as tlie leading ex- 
ponent of those interests which he has labored so 
earnestly and usefully to ' promote. He early be- 
came connected with the famous Massachusetts 
Agricultural Club, organized April 4, 1840, and was 
for many years its president and is now a most act- 
ive member, and he was long vice-president of the 
Worcester County Agricultural Society, of which 
he is yet a trustee. His unusual abilities also found 
legislative recognition, and he was for many years 
a trustee of the Agricultural College at Amherst, 



64 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



where, under his direction in the capacity of chair- 
man of the board, many important additions and 
salutary innovations were made. He became a mem- 
ber of the Worcester County Horticultural Society 
in 1847, serving that body as trustee, vice-president 
and president, and he was re-elected to the latter 
office in 1895, after a period of twenty years from 
his first incumbency, and has since been re-elected no 
less than twelve times. He has also long been 
a prominent member of the Massachusetts Horti- 
cultural Society and the American Pomological So- 
ciet}'. In 1867 he was made one of the commis- 
sioners in charge of the public parks of Worcester, 
and the great value of his services in that capacity 
is evidenced by his continuous reappointment. For 
several years he was chairman of the parks commis- 
sion, and he still holds membership in that board. 
This brief epitomization of his life work sets him 
forth among the most valuable members of the 
community — one who, in love of nature, delightedly 
holds communion with her visible forms, and brings 
her refining and uplifting influences to bear upon 
all about him, conveying the lesson that contentment 
and peace and most real happiness comes to him 
who nestles closest to nature's heart. And so it is 
not strange that in religion he adheres to the tenets 
of the Society of Friends. He was originally a 
Whig in politics, and his abhorrence of human slav- 
ery led him to identify himself with the Repub- 
lican party on its organization, and he cast his vote 
for its first presidential candidate, General (then 
Captain) John C. Fremont. An ardent Unionist and 
an appreciative admirer of Abraham Lincoln, he 
was a firm upholder of that great statesman in his 
struggle for the vindication of the national author- 
ity and the re-establishment of the Union. His 
natural tastes and habits of mind forbade him tak- 
ing an active part in political affairs, but he suf- 
fered himself on one occasion to be elected to the 
common council of Worcester, and was a valued and 
efficient member of that body in 1868-69. 

'Sir. Hadwen married, December 25, 184S, Har- 
riet Page, of Westminster, Vermont, a descendant 
of an honored revolutionary family of that state. 
Three children were born of this marriage. A son, 
William E. Hadwen, is deceased ; and another, 
Charles Hadwen, is a prominent produce merchant 
in Chicago, Illinois. A daughter, Amy, is the wife 
of John H. Coes, of the Coes Wrench Company of 
Worcester, Massachusetts. 

CHANDLER FAMILY. William Chandler (i), 
the immigrant ancestor of one of the foremost 
families of Worcester county, to which John Greene 
Chandler,' of Lancaster, belonged, was born in Eng- 
land and settled early in Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
He was there in 1637 and was one of the proprietors. 
He was admitted a freeman May 13, 1640. His 
homestead consisted of twenty-two acres. The fol- 
lowing, from the Roxbury records, gives a coii- 
temporary opinion of him : "He lived a very re- 
ligious and godly life among us and fell into a con- 
sumption to which he had a long time been in- 
clined; he lay near a year sick in all which time 
his faith, patience and holiness and contentation 
so shined that Christ was much glorified in him. He 
was a man of Weake parts but Excellent faith and 
holiness ; he was a Very thankful man, & much 
magnified God's goodness. He was poor but God 
prepared the hearts of his people to him that he 
never wanted that which was fat least in his esteem) 
Very plentiful and Comfortable to him. he died 
about in the yeare 1641 & left a sweet memory be- 
hind him." Rev. John Eliot wrote : "A Christian, 
Godly brother." He was buried January 19, 1641-2. 



His widow Annis married (second), July 21, 
1643, John Dane, of Barkhamstead and Bishop's 
Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, and Ipswich and 
Roxbury, in New England. Dane died at Roxbury 
and was buried September 14, 1658. She married 
(third), at Roxbury, August 9, 1660, John Par- 
menter, of Sudbury, a prominent man there, select- 
man 1641. 

The children of William Chandler were: i. 
Hannah, born about 1629 in England, married, De- 
cember 12, 1646, George Abbot; (second), 1690, 
Rev. Thomas Dane. 2. Thomas, born about 1630, 
married Hannah Brewer. 3. William, born in Eng- 
land, married (first), August 5 or 18, 1658, Mary 
Dane, of Ipswich; married (second), October 8, 
1679, Bridget Henchman, widow of James Richard- 
son. 4. John, born February 16, 1658, married 
Elizabeth Douglas. 5. Sarah, born at Roxbury, 
married (first), November 4, 1659, William Cleaves; 

(second) Wilson; (third), October 11, 1688, 

Ephraim Stevens; (fourth) Allen. 

(II) Deacon John Chandler, son of William 
Chandler (i), was born about 1635. He married,. 
February 16, 1658, Elizabeth Douglas, of Wood- 
stock, Connecticut. She died in New London, Con- 
necticut, July 23, 1705. She was born in England 
about 1610, the daughter of William, and Anna 
(Mattle) Douglas. He and his wife were ad- 
mitted to the church May 28, 1665. He was active 
in the settlement of Woodstock and served on im- 
portant committees. He had first choice of a home 
lot and he took one situated on the brook on the 
highway at the north end. He was selectman of 
Woodstock in 1693, 1694, and also moderator in 
1694. He was on the committee to build a meeting 
house on Plaine hill, nearly in front of the Bowen 
Mansion. He was one of six who bought the 
Moshamoquet Purchase of James Fitch, of Norwich. 
Deacon Chandler died April S, 1703, aged sixty- 
eight years. By his side in the graveyard at Wood- 
stock are buried a number of his descendants. His 
will was dated June i. 1702. 

The children of Deacon John and Elizabeth 
Chandler, all born in Roxbury, before their removal 
to Woodstock, were: i. John, born March 4, 1659, 
died young, and his gravestone bears the earliest 
date of death of any of the family in America as 
recorded by gravestones. 2. Elizabeth, born Feb- 
ruary 20. 1661, married, November 18. 1680. Robert 
Mason, of Roxbury. 3. John, born April 16, 1665. 
4. Joseph, born April 3, 1667. died in Roxbury, Sep- 
tember 29, 1668. 5. Hannah, born September 18, 
1669, married, July 7. 1685. Moses Draper, of Rox- 
Iniry. 6. Mehitable. born August 24, 1673, baptized 
June, 1673; married, June 25, 1695, John Coit, of 
New London. 7. Sarah, born November 19, 1676, 
died July 3, 1711; married (first), June 9, 1697, 
William Coit, of New London; (second), Septem- 
lier 2, 170S. John Gardiner, of Gardiner's Island. 8. 
Joseph, born June 4, 1683. married, June 29, 1708, 
Susannah Perrin, of Roxbury. 

(HI) Hon. John Chandler, son of Deacon John 
Chandler (2), was born at Roxbury. Massachu- 
setts, April 16, 1665. He married, November 10, 
t6q2, Mary Raymond, of Woodstock, who was born 
March 12, 1671-2. the fifth child of Deacon John 
Raymond, who married, December 10, 1652, Eliza- 
beth Smith, daughter of Nehemiah Smith. Deacon 
Joshua Raymond was the eldest son of Richard and 
Judith Raymond, of Salem. Mrs. Chandler died 
.\pril 8. 171 1, aged thirty-nine years, and is buried 
on Plain hill. Woodstock. There is an interesting 
tradition in the family of Mrs. Joshua Raymond 
and Captain Kidd, whom she had entertained at her 
house for some time. It is said but not universally 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



believed thai when the hlitliesome pirate left her 
hospitable root he tilled her apron full of gold, 
jewelry and costly plunder. Mr. Chandler married 
(second), November 14. 1717, Esther Butman, 
widow of Palgrave Alcock. 

John Chandler was town clerk of Woodstock 
in 1690, 1691, 1692 and 1694, and selectman in 
1693 and 1694. He resided several years at New 
London, where four of his children were born. 
In i6q8 he had a tavern license there. He returned 
to \\'oodstock to live and was surveyor of the town 
in .1703. deputy to the general court in 171 1, Wood- 
stock then being in Massachusetts. When the county 
of Worcester was established he was appointed judge 
of probate. He held the first probate court in 
the meeting house of Worcester July 13, 1731. He 
also held the court of common pleas and general 
sessions August 10, following. The county was 
organized April 2, 1731. Judge Chandler's son John 
was appointed clerk of the courts. Judge Chandler 
held his position as judge of these two tribunals 
until his death. One of his sons, John, Jr., suc- 
ceeded him on the bench, while another, Thomas 
Chandler, became a judge in Vermont, where he 
had settled. Judge Chandler was for forty years 
a commissioner of the peace and .was seven years 
in his Majesty's council. He died at Woodstock, 
August 10, 1743, in his seventy-ninth year. 

The children of John and Mary Chandler, born 
at Woodstock or New London, were: John, born 
at New London, October 18. 1693. of whom later ; 
Joshua, born February 9. 1695-6, married Elizabeth 
Cutler; William, born November 3, 169S. married 
Jemima Bradbury: Mary, born April 30, 1700, mar- 
ried John McCoy: Elizabeth, born May 13, 1702, 
married Joseph Frizzell ; Samuel, born January 5, 
1703-4, married Dorothy Church ; Sarah, born Octo- 
ber II. 1705, died March 7, 1721-2 ; Mehitable, born 
at Woodstock, August 10, 1707, married, 1747, 
Thoinas Buckminster, of Brookfield; Thomas, born 
July 23, 1709, married Elizabeth Eliot; Hannah, born 
March i-j. 1711, died May 23, 1711. 

(IV) John Chandler, son of John Chandler (3). 
was born at New London, Connecticut, October 18, 
1693. He married, October 23, 1716, Hannah 
Gardiner, on the Isle of Wight, off Long Island. 
She was born December 11, 1699, and died January 
5- 1738-9. in Worcester, and was buried on the 
Worcester common. Her grave with the others 
has been covered from sight, and the stones cov- 
ered, for some inscrutable reason. She was de- 
scended from Lion Gardiner, who came over in 
1635 and married Mary Williams, daughter of 
Dericke Williams and Hachim Bastians Williams ; 
he bought the Isle of Wight, better known, perhaps, 
as Gardiner's Island (east of Long Island). His son, 

David Gardiner, married Mary : his grandson. 

John Gardiner, son of David, married Mary King 
and three other wives, and was the father of Han- 
nah Gardiner, who married Judge Chandler. .Ac- 
cording to the Chandler Genealogy Gardiner's 
Island was entailed. The attempts to entail estates 
in Massachusetts failed in every case. The old 
English law of primogeniture was broken down 
effectually. John Chandler married (second) Sarah 
Clark, widow of Hon. Nathaniel Paine, of Bristol, 
Rhode Island. 

He was a surveyor by profession and was ap- 
pointed to plot Pomfret, Connecticut, and later he 
surveyed the line agreed upon between Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut. June. 1714. He w'as coroner 
for Suffolk county before the county of Worces- 
ter was established. He removed to Worcester when 
the county was formed, and was moderator of the 
town meeting in 1733. He represented Woodstock 



in the general court and also Worcester in 1732-35- 
38-39-52-53. He was a selectman of the town of 
Worcester in l733-34-3S-37-39-40-4^-43' lo I753 in- 
clusive; town treasurer 1741 to 1752 inclusive; first 
clerk of the county courts 1731 to 1754 inclusive; 
sheriff from 1751 to 1754 inclusive (while Mr. 
Chandler was sheriff Timothy Paine was associate 
clerk with him) ; register of probate from the or- 
ganization of the county until 1754; register of deeds 
until 1762. In May, 1754, he was appointed judge 
succeeding his father, and in May, 1757, he was 
made chief judge with three associates. He was 
one of the delegates of the American colonies who 
met at Albany, New York, delegates of the Five 
Nations of Indians, and were partly successful in 
making allies of them. An interesting character in 
Judge Chandler's family was a colored slave ''Aunt 
Sylvia," who lived to be one hundred and seven 
years old. 

Of Judge Chandler the historian of Worcester, 
Lincoln, wrote: "On the decease of his father he 
succeeded to the higher office of judge, colonel 
and councillor. His talents were brilliant and showy, 
rather than solid and profound. With manners 
highly popular he possessed a cheerful and gay dis- 
position, indulging in jest and hilarity and he 
exercised liberal hospitality. While Judge of Pro- 
bate he kept open table for the widows and orphans 
who were brought to his tribunal by the concerns 
of business." He was made a member of the 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1734, 
and was elected commander in 1737. He died Au- 
gust 10, 1762, and is buried on the Worcester 
common. 

The children of Hon. John and Hannah Chand- 
ler were : Mary, born at New London, September 
9. 1717, married, February 7, 1736-7, Benjamin 
Greene; Esther, born May 23, 1719, married. May 
9, 1745, Rev. Thomas Clapp ; John, of whom later; 
Gardner, born at Woodstock, September 18, 1723, 
married Hannah Greene; married (second), August 
2. 1767, Anne Leonard; Sarah, born January 11, 
1725, married. 1749, Timothy Paine; Hannah, born 
February I, 1727-8, married. May 17, 1750, Samuel 
Williams; Lucretia, born July 18, 1728, married, 
September i, 1761, John Murray, of Rutland; Eliza- 
beth, born January 5, 1732-3, married, September 
20, 1751, Hon. James Putnam; Katherine, born 
March 28, 1735, married Levi Willard; a son, born 
and died January 5, 1737-8. 

(V) Hon. John Chandler, son of Hon. Johrr 
Chandler (4), was born at Woodstock, Connectcut, 
February 26, 1720-1. He married Dorothy Paine, 
of Worcester, March 5. 1740. She was the daugh- 
ter of Colonel Nathaniel Paine, of Bristol, Rhode 
Island, and Worcester, Massachusetts. Colonel 
Paine's wife, her mother, was Sarah Clark, daughter 
of Timothy Clark, of Boston. Colonel Paine re- 
moved to Worcester in 1738 and had land near 
Lincoln street. Mrs. Dorothy Paine died October 
5. 1745. He married (second), June II, 1746, Mary 
Church, daughter of Charles Church, of Bristol, 
Rhode Island, sheriff, who died December 31, 1746, 
aged si.xty-four years. Her sister, Dorothy Church, 
married Samuel Chandler. Their father. Colonel 
Charles Church, was son of Colonel Benjamin 
Church, born in Duxbury, 1639, and wife Alice, 
the daughter of Constant Southworth, of Plymouth. 
(See sketch of Southworth family). 

John Chandler resided on the east side of Main 
street near the present site of Clark's block, formerly 
the site of Mower's Tavern and of the United 
States Hotel. He followed in the footsteps of his 
father and grandfather, both prominent servants of 
the Crown. He was town treasurer from 1753 to 



^6 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



1760, inclusive: town clerk from 1764 to 1768, in- 
clusive; comity treasurer from 1762 to 1775, in- 
clusive; sheiiff from 1751 to 1762; judge of probate 
from 1762 to 1774. Colonel Chandler marched to 
the relief of Fort William Henry, August, 1757. 
John Adams, who was then living in Worcester, 
afterwards president of the United States, wrote : 
"At the time Fort William Henry was besieged 
Colonel Chandler had occasion to send expresses 
often and while keeping school in Worcester I of- 
fered my services and was sent to the Governor of 
Rhode Island." 

He inherited the traits of character as well as 
the offices of his father and grandfather. He was 
cheerful and engaging in manner, hospitable as a 
citizen, friendly and kind as a neighbor, indus- 
trious and enterprising as a merchant. To a 
chivalrous sense of loyalty to the British govern- 
ment he sacrificed during the revolution property 
valued at over 36,000 pounds. In his own schedule 
presented to the British government after he had 
left his country, he reduced these figures which 
were probably about right, to 17,000 pounds, includ- 
ing 6,000 for loss of income from his offices. So 
just and moderate was this compensation ascer- 
tained to be, at a time when extravagant claims were 
presented by others, that his claims were allowed 
in full and he was called in England "The Honest 
Refugee." His portrait is to be seen at the foot 
of the stairs in the front hall of the American 
Antiquarian Hall at Worcester. Colonel Chandler 
had a pew in Old South Church. 

After the revolution broke out and Colonel 
Chandler left Worcester to affiliate with the Tories 
and British, he never returned. His estate was con- 
fiscated and he was named with his brother-in-law% 
Hon. James Putnam, and others of his family on 
the list of six who were banished and forbidden 
to return under penalty of death. Two of his sons, 
Rufus and William, were among the proscribed, and 
his nephew. Dr. William Paine. The son. William 
Chandler, and Dr. Paine, were permitted later to 
return home, and Dr. Paine regained the confi- 
dence and esteem of the conmiunity. Col. Chand- 
ler died in London, September 26, 1800, and was 
buried at Islington. His son Rufus was buried 
in the same grave. The spot is marked by a 
simple stone suitably inscribed. 

The children of John and Dorothy Chandler 
were: John, born March 3, 1742, of whom later; 
Gardner, born December i, 1743. died December 
16, 1743: Clark, born December i. 1743: Dorothy, 
born September, 1745. married, December 26, 1767, 
Samuel Ward, of Lancaster. The children of John 
and Mary Chandler were: Rufus, born May 18, 1747, 
married. November 18, 1770. Eleanor Putnam ; 
Gardiner, born January 27, 1749. married in 1772, 
Elizabeth Ruggles: Nathaniel, born November 6, 
1750; William, born December 7. 1752: Charles, 
born January 22, 1755, married. November 18. 1796, 
Sally Mower; Samuel, born February 25. 1757: 
Sarah, born December 14. 1758, married, Septem- 
ber 14, 1780, William Seaver. Jr.: Benjamin, born 
August 15, 1761. died December 16. 1775 : Francis, 
born July 28, 1763, died December 76. 1775: the 
two latter were drowned together in the mill pond 
in South Worcester; Lucretia, born June g. 1765. 
married, October 24, 1786, Rev. Aaron Bancroft: 
Thomas, born January 11, 1768, married. Septem- 
ber 25. 1802, Eliza Davis, widow of William Denny: 
Elizabeth, born February 20, 1770, married. Decem- 
ber 2, 1786, Ebenezer Putnam, of St. John, New 
Brunswick, where the family lived after the ex- 
patriation. 

(Vn John Chandler, son of Colonel John Chand- 



ler (5), was born in Worcester, March 3, 1742, the 
eldest child; married, April 4, 1766, Lydia Ward, 
who was born in 1732 and died July 30, 1794, aged 
sixty-two years. She was descended from Deacon 
William Ward, who came over with his second wife 
Elizabeth, from Yorkshire, and settled in Sudbury, 
dying in Marlboro, formerly part of Sudbury, aged 
eighty-seven years. His son, William Ward, born 
in Sudbury in 1640, married Hannah Johnson, 
daughter of Solomon Johnson, widow of Gershom 
Amee. His son. Colonel Nahum Ward, of Shrews- 
bury, was born 1684, and married Martha Hqw, 
daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (KerbyJ How. 
They were the parents of Nahum Ward. Jr., of 
Shrewsbury, who married Lydia Stearns ; was a 
merchant, died when about twenty-five years old, 
leaving two daughters, one of whom Lydia, mar- 
ried a Mr. Chandlee. 

John Chandler was an enterprising merchant of 
Petersham, Massachusetts. His home was about a 
mile from the center and is still remembered for 
the deer park in which he indulged. His deer es- 
caped finally from the enclosure and he lost them 
all. , He was successful in business. He com- 
mitted suicide during a fit of despondency and 
melancholy, to which he was subject, in 1794, aged 
fifty-two years. 

The children of John and Lydia Chandler were: 
John, born July 23, 1667, married, June 5, 1800, 
Elizabeth Greene: Lydia, born August 28, 1768, mar- 
ried Joseph Head; Clark, born April 19, 1770, mar- 
ried. July 14, 1791, Nancy Lyon; Nathaniel, born 
February 3, 1772, died August 19, 1772; Nathaniel, 
of whom later. 

(VII) Nathaniel Chandler, youngest child of 
John Chandler (6), was born in Petersham, Massa- 
chusetts, October 6, 1673: married, August 17. 1802, 
Dolly Greene, of Lancaster. She was born in Staf- 
ford, Connecticut. February 25, 1783, died July 30, 
1869, the tenth child of John Greene, son of Na- 
thaniel, who was born in Surinam. South .-America, 
December 10, 1736. John's wife was .Azubah Ward, 
born at Woodstock, Connecticut. November 11, 1737. 
daughter of Major Daniel W'ard by his wife Mary, 
daughter of Nathaniel Stone, and widow of Henry 
Coggin. Major Daniel Ward was a son of Obadiah 
and Hannah (Harrington) Ward, grandson of 
Richard Ward and wife Mary, daughter of John and 
Elizabeth Moore, and great-grandson of the Sud- 
bury immigrant. 1639, William Moore. (See Moore 
family sketch). 

Nathaniel Chandler graduated from Harvard 
College in 1792. He settled in Petersham and man- 
aged the Petersham branch of the business of John 
Chandler & Brothers. .-Afterwards he removed to 
Lancaster to assume the estate of his unc!e-in-la\v 
there. Samuel Ward. Esq. He was representative 
to the general court in 1807. Although troubled 
with an affliction that kept him under the care of 
Dr. George Chandler and Dr. S. B. Woodward 
during the last years of his life. Dr. Chandler wrote 
of him: "He was of medium height and size, his 
complexion light and features regular and marked. 
He retained his intelligence, shrewdness, wit and dry 
humor, his dignity of person and character, his 
marked courtesy and .gentlemanly bearing to the 
last." He died in Worcester. June 4. 1852, aged 
seventy-eight years. 

The children of Nathaniel and Dolly Chandler 
were: Samuel Ward, born Julv 12. 1803. married, 
November 18, 18,^0. Eliza Fales Richmond : Catherine 
.•\mory. born April 18, 1805. married, May 7. 1833. 
Theophilus Parsons. Esq. : Charles, born Seotember 
7. 1807. married. March 25. t8,'?4. Sarah Whitney; 
John Greene, of whom later: Mary Greene, born 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



67 



May* 23, 1818, married, Fcbniary -;5, 1862, Dr. 
Johii Ware, son ot" Rev. Henry Ware, of Harvard 
College. (.See sketch of Charles E. Ware and 
family of Fitchburg. George Fredtrick, born 
March 12, 1822. married, April 22, 1S4", Susan Buss. 

(Vni) John Greene Chandler, fourth child of 
Nathaniel Chandler (7), was born in Petersham, 
Massachusetts, December 18, 1815. He was brought 
lip on the farm in Lancaster and attended school 
there. Having a natural aptitude for drawing he 
learned the art of wood engraving, and becarne 
one of the most proficient artists in this line of his 
day. After residing in various places Mr. Chandler 
returned to Lancaster in i86g and spent the re- 
mainder of his life there. In religion he was an 
tarnest Unitarian. 

He married, June 5, 1850, Sarah Aun Guild, who 
was born October 26, 1817, the daughter of Samuel 
Guild, president of the People's Bank of Roxbury. 
Her father was born in Walpole, March 18, 1777, 
and died January 12, 1862; married, 1806, Sarah 
Means, daughter of James Means, Jr. Her grand- 
father. Nathaniel Guild, married, 1733, Mary Boy- 
den, of Wrentham; he was the son of Samuel and 
Sarah (Hartshorn) Guild: the grandson of Samuel 
and Mary (.Woodcock) Guild. Mary Woodcock 
was the daughter of Samuel and Ann' Woodcock. 
The immigrant ancestors were John and Elizabeth 
(Crook) Guild, of Dedham. The children of John 
Greene and Sarah Ann Chandler were : Alice 
Greene, born July 18, 1851, who resides in Lan- 
caster; Miss Chandler has been connected with the 
Lancaster town library since 1872. For eighteen 
years she was librarian and is now advisory librarian 
and trustee. Fanny Guild, born July 10, 1857, died 
July, 1901. 

CH.-\RLES FRAZER, a prominent business man 
of Worcester county, was born in Glasgow, Scot- 
land, April 7, 1838. the son of the late (iharles 
and Margaret (Bruce) Frazer, both natives of Scot- 
land. 

Charles Frazer obtained his, education in the 
common schools of his native place, and in 1849 
emigrated to this country with his parents, landing 
at Xew York, proceeding to South Hadley Falls, 
Massachusetts. His father was an expert mill hand, 
and was engaged in the mill business at Hadley 
Falls, where he died in August, 1850, after which 
the family removed to Clinton and Charles was there 
employed in the Lancaster mills. He also was em- 
ployed with his father in the mill at Hadley Falls. 
He later learned the trade of a bricklayer, being 
thus engaged for some time. Subsequently he 
formed a partnership with Mr. Fairbanks, and 
conducted a contracting and building business with 
considerable success. In 1879 Mr. Frazer engaged 
in the coal Inisiness in Clinton. Massachusetts, which 
he has since conducted with the most flattering suc- 
cess. During the war of the rebellion Mr. Frazer 
enlisted, in 1861, in Company C, Fifteenth Massa- 
chusetts Infantry. He participated in the various 
engagements that made that company famous, and 
distinguislicd himself for his bravery and fearless- 
ness on the field of action. He entered the service 
as a private and was njustered out a lieutenant. 

Mr. Frazer's political affiliations are with the 
Republican party, and he has served as assessor and 
road commissioner for his party. He is a member 
of the Masonic order and a member of the com- 
mandery. He is an enthusiastic member of the 
G. A. R., Clinton Post, a member of the Odd Fel- 
lows, and is also treasurer of the Sterling Worsted 
Mills. Mr. Frazer is pre-eminently a self-made man, 
and enjoys the confidence and respect of the entire 



cummuiiity. In matters of n.Iigioii he and his 
fannly atieiid the Unitarian church. 

On September 6, 1S58, Mr. Frazer was united 
in marriage to Mary Barr, a daughter of Robert 
Barr, of Jamestown, Scotland, and their children 
were : Charles R., married Bertha Eager, and they 
have two children : Robert B. and Bertha A. Etta 
M.. married James Charnock, and two children were 
born to them: Sydney T. and Harold Irving. Fred- 
erick E., married Helen Smith and has three chil- 
dren : Etta F., Helen and Jeannette B. Charles R., 
died June 8, 1906. 

EZRA GREEN. James Green (i), immigrant 
ancestor of the late Ezra Green, of Fitchburg, 
Massachusetts, was born in England about 1620. 
He came to Charlestown, in New England, before 
1647, and was admitted a freeman there May 26, 
1647. He removed to Maiden, the Mystic side, in 
1647, and was one of the petitioners for a division 
of the town in 1648. He was interested in church 
affairs, and he appears prominent in various church 

matters. He married Elizabeth . Their house 

lot was on land bought of Riehard Harrington in 
1656 and remaining in the possession of his family 
until 1765. It was situated on Green hill and the 
house is still preserved on what is now Appleton 
street. James Green served on a committee to lay 
out a highway in June, 1671. He was a citizen of 
influence in Maiden. He died there March 29, 
1687, aged seventy-seven years. His will was dated 
September 2, 16S2, and probated May 5, 1687. It 
mentions his wife and two sons mentioned below, 
viz.: John, "of the Hill." died 1709, of whom later; 
James, resided in Maiden. 

(II) John Green, "of the Hill." .as he was called 
from his place of residence to distinguish him from 
the other John Greens, of Maiden, was son of 
James Green (I), and born perhaps in England 
about 1645. He was a mariner in 1673. He was ad- 
mitted a freeman in 1683 and died March 22, 1709. 

He married Mary . It is obviously difficult 

to distinguish him from the others of the name 
ill .some instances. The children of John and Mary 
were: Mary, born December, 1668: Samuel, only 
son. of whom later : Elizabeth ; Hannah. All were 
born in Maiden. 

(III) Samuel Green, only son of John Green 
(2), was born in 1679. He settled at Maiden and 
became a prominent citizen. He was deputy to the 
general court in 1742 and selectman in 1743. He 
bought the dwelling and five acres of land of Rev. 
David Parsons after he had removed to Leicester. 
He ranked high socially as he was called "Mr." on 
various records. He died February 21. 1761. aged 
eighty-two years. His will dated January 30, 1752, 
was proved March 23, 1761. His wife. Martha 
Green, daughter of Samuel Green, died May 29, 
1754. aged seventy-two years. He married about 
1700. His wife was granddaughter of Thomas 
Green (I), of Maiden, so that the children of Sam- 
uel Green arc descended from both the immigrant 
Greens of Maiden. 

(I) Thomas Green, the grandfather of Mrs. 
Samuel Green, was born in England, 1606, and came 
to this country in 1635 or 1636. He was probably 
in Ipswich until 1649 or 1650, and then settled in 
Maiden, Massachusetts. He was selectman in 1658. 
He died December 19. 1667, and his will is dated 
November 12, 1667. He married (first) Elizabeth 

, and (second) Frances Cook, widow of 

Richard Cook, and previously widow of Isaac 
Walker. (See further facts in sketch of the Green 
Family of Leicester and Worcester.) Ex-Mayor 
Green, of New York, was a descendant. 



68 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



The children of Thomas and EHzabeth Green 
were: Elizabeth, born in England, about 1628; 
Thomas, born in England, about 1620 (See Pope's 
Pioneers of Massachusetts), married Rebecca Hills; 
John, born about 1632, married Sarah Wheeler; 
Mary, born about 1633, married Captam John 
Waite; William, born 1635, married Elizabeth 
Wheeler, and (second) Isabel (Farmer) Blood; 

Henry, born 1638, married Esther ; Samuel, 

of whom later; Hannah, born 1647, married Joseph 
Richardson; Martha, born 1650; Dorcas, born May 

1, iti53, married James Barrett. 

(H) Samuel Green, father of Martha, who mar- 
ried Samuel Green (HI), was the son of Thomas 
Green (I), mentioned above. He was born March 
1645; married, 1666, Mary Cook, sister of Frances 
Cook, whose third husband was Thomas Green (I). 
Mary died November 24, 1715, and Samuel (H), 

married (second) Susanna , who survived 

him. 

Samuel Green (H) lived m Maiden and was 
known as Samuel, Sr. He bought, October, 1670, of 
his brother William half of his father's farm and 
occupied the old mansion house. He bought the 
other half June 13, 16S4. He died October 31, 
1724, aged seventy-nine years, seven months. His 
will was dated January 3, 1721. The children of 
Samuel (H) and Mary Green w^ere : Samuel, born 
January, 1667-8, married Mary Wheeler; Thonias, 
born 1669, married Hannah Vinton; John, born 
April I. 1672; William, born August, 1674, married 
Elizabeth Farmer; Mary, born about 1677, married 
her cousin, John Green; Jonathan, born February 

2, 1679-80 married Lydia Buchmann ; Martha, of 
whom later; David, born 1685, married Martin 
Pratt; Ehzabeth,' born November 16, 1687, married 
David Gould; Isaac, born May 20, 1690, married 
Mary Pratt. 

The children of Samuel Green (son of John 
(ID) and his wife Martha Green, daughter of 
Samuel Green (son of Thomas (I) Green) were: 
James, born November 22, 1702, selectman of 
Maiden, 1751 ; Martha, born January 18, 1703-4. 
married John Sw^eetser, October 2. 1722; John, 
born August 11, 1707, resided in Carlisle; Timothy, 
born October 10, 1709, removed to Lancaster; Ezra, 
of whom later; Mary, born December 28, 171": 
Sarah, born x\pril 24, 1721 ; Samuel, born April 14, 

1724- „ 

(IV) Ezra Green, fifth child of Samuel Green 
(3), was born in Maiden, Massachusetts. February 
31, 1714-5. He was deacon of the Maiden Church, 
"and very prominent in town affairs. He was select- 
man in 1753-57-63-68; deputy to the general court 
1760-61-62; town clerk and for many years justice 
of the peace and magistrate. He died April 28, 1768, 
aged fifty-four years. 

He married (first) Sarah Hutchinson, Febru- 
ary 12. 1740. She died July 7. 1741. aged twenty- 
six years, without issue. He married (second) 
Eunice Burrill, daughter of Hon. Eben Burrill. of 
Lynn. She died October 2, 1760. He married 
(third), April 29, 1762, Mary (Green) Vinton, 
daughter of Isaac Green, and widow of Benoni Vin- 
ton. The children of Deacon Ezra and Eunice Green 
were: Dr. Ezra, born June 17, 1746. graduate of 
Harvard, 1765, surgeon in the revolution; settled 
at Dover, New Hampshire, and died there July 25. 
1847, aged one hundred years, twenty-eight days ; 
Bernard, of whom later. The children of Deacon 
Ezra and Mary were: Mary, born March 22. 1763; 
Aaron, born Januarv 22, 1765. 

(V) Bernard Green, second child of Ezra Green 
(1). was born in Maiden, Massachusetts, January 
14 or IS, 1752. He was one of the most distinguished 



and influential men of his day in the town. He 
was in the battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill and 
White Plains, Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey. 
He was a corporal in Captain Blaney Shirley's com- 
pany at Lexington. He was first sergeant in Cap- 
tain John Walton's company. Colonel Brooks's regi- 
ment, in 1776, and was at White Plains, Trenton 
and Princeton battles. He was lieutenant in Colonel 
Thatcher's regiment of Middlesex militia in 1778, 
and later was captain of the Maiden company. After 
the revolution he was deputy to the general court, 
and for thirty years justice of the peace and magis- 
trate. Much of the early history and especially the 
oral traditions were preserved owing to his interest 
in them. He is described as. a man of towering 
frame and colossal mind. His son was the orator 
at the two htfndredth anniversay celebration of the 
foundation of the town of Maiden. He died at 
Maiden, July 15, 1834, aged eighty-two years. 

He married (second) Lois Diman, daughter of 
Rev. James Diman, minister of the East Church at 
Salem, Massachusetts, June 7, 1789, and she died 
February 22, 1839, aged eighty-one years. The 
children of Bernard Green were: Bernard, born 
December 30, 1783; Mary Anne, born August 5, 
1791, died young; Eunice Burrill, born October 21, 
1792; Ezra, of whom later; Mary Orne, born Au- 
gust 22, 1796; James Dimon, born October 8, 1798, 
graduate of Harvard 1817. pastor Third Church, 
Cambridge, mayor of Cambridge, 1653 ; orator at the 
Maiden bi-centennial. 

(VI) Ezra Green, fourth child of Bernard Green 
(5), was born at Maiden. Massachusetts, February 
II, 1795. He was educated there in the public schools 
and at Phillips Academy. Exeter, New Hampshire. 
He thought he preferred to follow the sea to study- 
ing at the academy and withoiit permission of the 
constituted authorities he shipped before the mast 
and brought his school days abruptly to an end. 
Upon his return home he worked on the farm until 
1858, succeeding his father on the homestead at Mai- 
den. He was a Whig in politics and a Unitarian in 
religion. He was interested in public affairs and 
wrote several books of travel. He was a man of 
sturdy character, broad views and unusual general 
intelligence. He removed fnom Maiden to Lancaster 
in 1858. and died there in 1862. He had a handsome 
home in Lancaster, in which his widow has since 
resided. She is a bright and interesting woman 
notuithstanding her great age. She was born in 
1819. the daughter of Ralph and Abigail (Childs) 
Richardson, of Vermont. 

Bernard Green married Elmina Richardson, 
1842. Their children were : Bernard Richardson, 
born December 28, 1843, married Julia Lincoln, and 
they have four children : Elmina Minerva, born 
.\ugust 2^, 1845, married H. T. Harwood. and they 
have eight children: Sarah Elizabeth, born April i, 
1847, married Charles Wilder, and they have one 
child ; James D., born December 25, 1848, married 
Elizabeth Damon; George Ezra, born September 17, 
1850, died young; .\bby F., unmarried: Marion, 
unmarried. They were born in Maiden. Two others 
died young. 

JAMES LOG.\N. The 'Logan family, repre- 
sented by James Logan, a prominent Massachu- 
setts manufacturer, of Worcester, originated in 
.\vrshire, Scotland. The genealogy of James Logan 
is'traced as follows from the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 

(I) David Logan, of Brouchallmuir, in tht 
parish of Dunlop, in Ayrshire, Scotland, married 
Elizabeth Muir. 

(II) James Logan, son of David and Eliza- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



69 



betli (Muir) Logan, was l)orn in the village named 
above, July 18, 1778, and died March 26, i860, aged 
eighty-one years, eight months and eight days. He 
married, December 25, 1801, Margaret, daughter of 
Archibald and Janet (Gibson) Thompson, of Cor- 
bert. parish of Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland ; 
she was born in November, 1782, died August 28, 
1825. Their children were : Janet, born November 
3. 1802, died August 23, 1855; married John Alli- 
son; David, September i, 1805, died July 2,?, 1818; 
Elizabeth, July 31, 1807, died September 30, 1824; 
Mary, March 30, 1809, died February 27, 1829; mar- 
ried Alexander Reid ; Margaret Thompson, June 15, 
1811, died October 27, 1812; Archibald Thompson, 
July 22, 1813, died January 4, 1886; Margaret 
Thompson, August 2, 1816, died December 2, 1835 ; 
Da\id (see forward) : Agnes Logan, July 24, 1822, 
married William Robb. 

(Ill) David Logan, eiglith child and third son 
of James and Margaret (Thompson) Logan, was 
born in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire, Scotland. De- 
cember 5, 1818. He married Mary Kennedy, born 
in Paisley, Scotland, January 25, 1816. With their 
children, two sons and two daughters, they sailed 
in 1852 from Greenock, Scotland, in the ship "Isa- 
bella," and arrived in the United States after a 
voyage of seven weeks. David Logan first settled 
in Connecticut, wdience he soon removed to Wor- 
cester. Massachusetts. He found employment with 
the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, serving as watch- 
man for several years, and subsequently located 
on a farm in Cherry Valley, near Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts. He died in Cherry Valley, Massachusetts, 
March 20, 1893. His wife died in Cherry Valley, 
Massachusetts. September 20, 1888. Of his children, 
four were born in Scotland, and two in Worcester, 
Massachusetts. David, born .\ugust 16, 1840. in 
Paisley. Scotland, died in Brewster, New York, 
October 10, 1902 ; Margaret, August 2, 1848, in Pais- 
ley. Scotland, died at North Woodstock. Connecti- 
cut, February 2, 1902 ; Annie Kennedy, born Sep- 
tember 7, 1850, in Paisley, Scotland, became the 
wife of Lendall Houghton : James, see forward ; 
Oscar Alva, born January 24, 1854, in Worcester, 
Massachusetts : John Kennedy, born December 14, 
1855. in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

' IV) James Logan, fourth child and second 
son of David and Mary (Kennedy) Logan, was 
born in Glasgow, Scotland. May 6, 1852. and was 
a babe three months old when his parents came to 
the United States. His life was one of arduous 
labor from his very boyhood, and his education 
was in greater part eked out at spare times. As 
was the custom then in both Great Britain and the 
United States, boys became bread winners as soon 
as they were large enough, and at the age of ten 
years young Logan found employment in the Park- 
liurst Woolen Mill at Vallcv Falls, a village near 
Worcester, Massachusetts. Labor began at five in 
the morning, the operatives working for two and 
a half hours before breakfast, the entire mill day 
being extended to fourteen hours. The machinery 
was clumsy, even when working at its best the pace 
was slow, and there were frequent stoppages on ac- 
count of breakdowns and want of water, that being 
before the day of steam engines. These delays were 
of great advantage to the young workman. He 
had attended school some little before, and he now 
devoted his hours of enforced relief from work to 
further improving his mind. The teacher at the 
Valley Falls school was Mary E. D. King, a noble 
woman whose entire life was given to school work 
in Worcester, and whose memory is revered by 
hundreds of men and wonien as the friend of their 
youth, the faithful guide who inspired them to 



apply Ihomsclves to study, and to fit themselves 
for the active duties of life. Upon young Logan 
she left a strong impress, and he ever regarded hei 
with peculiar affection and gratitude. She induced 
a half-dozen mill lads to come to the school to recite 
in the odd hours when the mill was shut down, 
for want of water power, and at noon hour, when 
the work was more continuous, she heard them 
recite their lessons. Of this company young Logan 
alone persisted in continuing his studies and recita- 
tions, and the fact is significant as showing his 
determination to procure an education which should 
enable him to enter upon a larger. career than that 
of a mere laborer. When about eleven an accident 
indirectly further advanced him on the highway to 
success. His arm was caught in a machine and 
was broken in three places, being almost torn off 
at the wrist, and leaving a frightful scar for life. 
While his arm had lost some of its power and use- 
fulness, he was not incapacitated, and he resumed 
mill work. At fifteen he was taken ill, and on his 
recovery, after a period of six months, was able 
to perform only light luill labor, and the fact that 
his left arm was weak turned his mind toward 
bookkeeping. In his sixteenth year he entered B. G. 
Howe's Business College, which then occupied 
quarters in the building where the Park theatre 
now stands, and while attending that school assisted 
for a short time as billing clerk in the office of 
S. R. Heywood & Co., the veteran shoe rnanu- 
facturer. The next year after completing his com- 
mercial course, he took temporary employment with 
the First National Fire Insurance Company, then 
in the building now occupied by Green's drug store, 
at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets ; he soon 
obtained a position as bookkeeper with A. Y. Thomp- 
son & Co., dry goods dealers, in the Flagg block, 
on Main street. Here he remained for about two 
years, receiving $150 for his first year's work, and 
sleeping on the counter, as was the custom in those 
days, in order to serve as a watchman over the 
store. His course now was one of gradual but sub- 
stantial advancement. After leaving Mr. Thompson 
he returned to the woolen mill of G. N. and J. A. 
Smith. Cherry Valley (now operated by their 
nephew, Channing Smith), in which he had pre- 
viously worked as a mill boy. atid in which he now 
served for about two years in the capacity of book- 
keeper. In 1S73 he became bookkeeper for San ford 
& Company, book sellers and stationers, at the corner 
of Main and Maple streets, one of the two book 
stores then in the city, and now conducted by the 
Sanford- Putnam Company. Finding that his office 
duties did not require all his time, he volunteered 
to sell goods in the store in addition to his office 
duties and developed unusual ability as a salesman. 
In 1878 he received an offer from David Whitcomb, 
of G. Henry Whitcomb & Company, envelope manu- 
facturers (established since 1864, to enter their 
employ. The salary was considerably less than he 
had been receiving, but he saw an opportunity for 
a niore extended field of usefulness, and he accepted. 
Mr. Logan soon gained an accurate practical knowl- 
edge of all the processes of manufacture, the 
marketing of the product, and the details of the 
business, gaining the entire' confidence of his em- 
ployers. His services as a salesman were of 
particular advantage, and he contributed in marked 
degree to the extension of the business. 

In December. 1882. Mr. Logan associated with 
himself George H. Lovve. of Boston, under the name 
of the Logan & Lowe Envelope Company. A fac- 
tory was established in the Stevens block, on South- 
bridge street. Leader machines were installed, and 
the business was inaugurated most promisingly. In 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



July, 1883. Mr. Logan received a flattering offer to 
return to the Whitcomb Company, and the firm of 
Logan & Lowe Envelope Company, was dissolved, 
Mr. Lowe returning to Boston to become a partner in 
the wholesale paper house of Carter, Rice & Com- 
pany. Mr. Logan's stay was short, and in January, 
1884, he with Henry D. Swift, D. Wheeler Swift, and 
John S. Brigham (all formerly connected with the 
Whitcomb Company) formed the Logan, Swift & 
Brigham Envelope Company, for the manufacture 
of envelopes. A factory was established at 16 L^nion 
street, and operations were begun W'ith Leader and 
Reay machine^, which were soon superseded by a 
new equipment designed by the Swifts, who were 
the mechanical experts of the enterprise, and who 
were the inventors of all the envelope folding ma- 
chinery in the Whitcomb Company. With the ad- 
vantage of the more rapid production made possible 
by improved machinery, and Mr. Logan's splendid 
ability for marketing the goods, the success of the 
firm was phenominal, and it was of world-wide 
fame as the most extensive, most completely equipped 
and most profitable of any in its line in the L'nited 
States. In 1898 the business was consolidated with 
that of the Whitcomb Company, the Hill Envelope 
Company and seven other large envelope manu- 
facturing firms, under the corporate title of the 
L'nited States Envelope Company, with Mr. Logan 
as first vice-president and general manager, positions 
which he has occupied to the present time. To the 
complex duties thus devolved upon him, with new 
problems and new conditions continually arising, he 
has brought tireless energy and abilities of the 
highest order, his grasp extending from the initial 
process through all the stages of manufacture, the 
continual improvement of the equipment, and the 
great responsibilities connected with the marketing 
of the immense product of the factories. At the 
present time nearly two thousand operatives are 
constantly employed. Much of the success attend- 
ing the practical work of the establishment is due 
to D. Wheeler Swift, the chief mechanical engineer, 
Of the original Logan, Swift & Brigham Company, 
Mr. Brigham died February ig, 1897, and Henry 
D. Swift has retired from business. 

Mr. Logan occupies much of his time in the 
general offices in Springfield. Massachusetts, and 
makes his home in Salisburj' street, Worcester. 
where he occupies a handsome residence. He has 
always taken a deep and active interest in com- 
munity affairs. He was formerly a trustee of the 
Worcester County Institute for Savings: served for 
several years as president of the Worcester County 
Mechanics' Association ; was a director of the board 
of trade ; was a member of the grade crossing com- 
mission of 1898, and would at that time probably 
have been elected to the mayoralty, had he been 
willing to accept a nomination, but having agreed to 
accept the office of general manager of the Con- 
solidating Envelope Company, did not feel he would 
be able to give to the service of the city the time 
which he believed a mayor ought to give. He has 
ever been particularly interested in the educational 
andT>enevolent institutions of the city. He has long 
been a trustee of the Worcester Polytechnic In- 
stitute: is a trustee of the Bancroft Scholarship, 
charged with the use of a fund by George Ban- 
croft, the historian, in aiding Worcester young peo- 
ple to a collegiate education : and is a trustee of the 
Worcester City Hospital, in which he takes an active 
and efficient interest. He was one of the chief 
promoters and has always been among the principal 
supporters of the Young Men's Christian .-Associa- 
tion in Worcester, which he has served in the 
capacity of president, and is at the present time one 



of the trustees, and it is largely through his effort 
that this beneficent institution has been preserved 
from financial embarrassment. He is also a mem- 
ber of the state executive committee of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island. He is a member of the Central 
Congregational Church and of its board of deacons. 
He is an active member of the Congregational Club, 
of which he has been president : and of the Wor- 
cester Society of Antiquity. He is a member of 
various Masonic bodies — Montacute Lodge, Eureka 
Royal Arch Chapter, and Hiram Council. He is 
one of the thirty members of the Civic Federation 
of New England, representing the manufacturers of 
the state of Massachusetts in that body. Mr. Logan 
gave to the town of Leicester a park adjoining the 
cemetery at Cherry Valley (where he began his life 
as a school and mill boy) known as Towtaid Park, 
the Indian name for that locality. He is one of the 
lecturers upon business topics at Dartmouth College 
in the Tuck School of Administration and Finance, 
and in 1904 received the degree of Master of Arts 
from that institution. 

James Logan married, in 1879. Annie D., daugh- 
ter of Levi Johnson, of Worcester, who for many 
years was proprietor of the jewelry store in the 
Bay State House at the corner of Main and Ex- 
change streets. Mr. Johnson is now (1905) living 
in Worcester at his home, 12 John street, having 
retired from business several years ago. He was 
born in 1819. The children of James and .\nnie D. 
Logan are : Oscar Johnson, born September 23, 
1880. died August 28. 1881 : Donald Brigham, No- 
vember 8, 1881, graduated from Dartmouth .College 
in 1904, taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws: 
after spending another year in the Tuck School of 
.Administration and Finance he received in 1905 
the degree of Master of Commercial Science; Alice, 
born August 29, 1887; Ruth, born April 20, i88g. 

CHACE FAMILY. Bartholomew Chace (i), 
one of the first settlers of Rhode Island, was proba- 
blv the immigrant ancestor of Mrs. Maria A. 
(Chace) Haskell, of Clinton, Massachusetts. The 
Chace family of Rhode Island has been distin- 
guished for ability and worth. Most of the des- 
cendants spell the name Chace in distinction from 
the numerous descendants of Aquila Chase and his 
brother, Thomas Chase, of northern Massachusetts 
and of New Hampshire. 

(II) Joseph Chace, perhaps a grandson of the 
immigrant, Bartholomew Chace, was born about 
1680. He settled in Warwick. Rhode Island. His 
wife Abigail died there November 25, 1730. Their 
children born in Warwick, were : Gideon, born De- 
cember 22. 1712: Ebenezer, January 17, 1715: Paul 
May 22, 1716; Mome, July 23, 1718; Arbra. July i. 
1720; Joseph, January 13, 1723, died young: Abigail, 
January 13, 1723 (twin), died young: Alary. June 
18, 1726: David. The children of Joseph and Slary 
Chace, born at North Kingston, Rhode Island. 
were : Joseph, William, settled in Bellingham, "Massa- 
chusetts, and had Isabel, born May 12, 1758, mar- 
ried Seth Hayward ; Joseph, born August 16. 1764, 
and others. 

(HI) Joseph Chace, Jr., son of Joseph Chace 
(2), was born at North Kingston, Rhode Island, 
February 16, about 1740. Among the children of 
Joseph was Charles, born in Rhode Island about 
I765- Joseph appears to have been a soldier in the 
revolution from Bellingham, and his brother Wil- 
liam settled there permanently. 

(IV) Charles Chace, son of Joseph Chace, Jr. 
(3). was born in Rhode Island about 1762. He 
was at Cumberland, Rhode Island, November Sr 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



/ 



1/86, when lie married Abigail Idc. daughter of 
Timothy Ide, of a well known old family. He 
lived there a few years, then was at Bellingham, 
where his father lived at one time and where his 
uncle made his home. He married (second), also 
at Cumberland. Rhode Island, December 28, 1794. 
Ruth Jencke, of Wrentham. Charles and his vi'ife's 
brother, William Jencke, of Wrentham, bought the 
Tucker house and farm on what is now known as 
Chace street in the spring of 1798 of Major Merrick 
Rice. As Major Rice was one of the lawyers of 
Lancaster and as the property had come into his 
hands from Benjamin Houghton and Josiah Cool- 
idge, who had it two years before from Thomas 
Tucker, it is probable that the estate had passed 
from the hands of the Tucker family on account 
of the hard times at the close of the eighteenth 
century. The house, like that of William Gould 
on the Mill road and that of Elias Sawyer at what 
is now Lancaster Mills, had been begun, but through 
lack of funds had never been finished. It remained 
for Mr. Chace to complete it, a large square New 
England mansion, still standing on the original site 
between Chace street and the Nashua river. The farm 
contained about one hundred and fifty acres, or 
some thirty-five more than in the old Tucker place. 
The price paid was two housand dollars. In 1802 
Mr. Jenks (as the name is now spelled) released 
his part in the ownership to Mr. Chace. 

!Mr. Chace was not only a farmer but also a 
tanner, currier and shoemaker. He bought di- 
rectly from the neighboring farmers whenever they 
slaughtered cattle and tanned the hides in vats to 
the north and south of his house. Some two years 
after he bought a skin he had it ready for use as 
leather. His currying and shoemaking were dotie 
in a shop one story high, eighteen by- thirty feet, 
six rods or so west of the house. Tlie sides of 
leather were hung on the sides of this building to 
dry. On one side of the shop the drying and 
dressing were done, on the other the boots and 
shoes were made by Mr. Chace and his hands and 
apprentices. He had simple tools and all the work 
was by hand. His two eldest sons probably learned 
the whole business of their father, but in later life 
Alanson confined his activity to shoemaking while 
the other son Charles became a tanner. Mr. Chace's 
home life is thus described in the Clinton history : 
"The family life was that of the ideal New Eng- 
land home, as it existed in the early part of the 
century (nineteenth). There was great earnest- 
ness of religious belief, but no austerity. ;\Ir. 
Chace belonged to the Rhode Island family of 
Chaces and brought with him from his old home 
the Baptist belief. .Although the members of the 
family attended public worship at the old church 
at Lancaster Center, still they clung to their own 
form of faith and gathered their neighors to wor- 
ship with them, and thus became the originators 
of the Baptist organization in the town. When 
John Burdett settled in Clinton, they found in him 
an equally devoted worker. Something of the beau- 
tiful home life of the family can be surmised from 
this extract from a letter written by the youngest 
son to his mother on his thirty-sixth birthday. 
"This day reminds me anew of the untold, unpaid, 
and unpayable debt of gratitude which every son is 
under to a good mother, and for which the only 
return he can make is to show her that he is not 
insensible of it. Frequently when not otherwise 
occupied, does my mind wander back to the days 
of iny early childhood, when it was so sweet to 
pillow my head upon my mother's knee, when her 
lap was my home, the safe refuge to which I 
flew from every childish grief and trouble. .And 



there are moments when my spirit, worn and soiled 
by the cares of life, has lost its freshness and its 
hope, in which I would fain be that little boy over 
again and nestle in my mother's bosom and find 
it as secure a retreat from the trials of manhood 
as I did then from the trials of infancy." 

Mr. Chace died in 185 j, aged niritty years. In 
his will, which was proved in 1852, he mentioned 
his nephew, Timothy Ide Crowninshield, and his 
four surviving children : Alanson, Charles, Jr., 
George Ide and Diana, The children of Charles 
and Abigail (Ide) Chace were i. Titmothy Ide, 
born March 6, 1787, at Cumberland, Rhode Island, 
died Sptember 12, 1789. 2. Sally, born November 7, 

1789, married Crowninshield. The children of 

Charles and Ruth (Jenks) Chace: 3. Alanson, see 
forward. 4. Charles, Jr., built the old part of the 
house at No. i Green street ; he was a tanner ; 
settled at Stillriver (Harvard) and became deacon 
of the church there in August, 1819, and served 
for more than seventy years. 5. William J., died 
young. 6. George Ide, who gained a world-wide 
reputation, prepared for college at Lancaster Acad- 
emy, graduated as valedictorian of his class at 
Brown University in 1830; he was for a year prin- 
cipal of a classical school at Waterville, Maine, 
then returned to Brown in 1831, as tutor in mathe- 
matics, in 1833 became adjunct professor of mathe- 
matics and applied philosophy, in 1836 professor of 
chemistry, geology and physiology, and filled that 
chair for thirty-one years ; was well known as a 
public lecturer, traveled in (Canada, Nova Scotia 
and Central America, as well as the western por- 
tion of his own country in his capacity as mining 
expert; in 1867 he was acting president of the LTni- 
versity; resigned as professor in 1872 and traveled 
abroad; returned to Providence and during the re- 
mainder of his life devoted himself to the inter- 
ests of his city and state, chiefly as the chairman 
of the Rhode Island State Board of Charities aiid 
Correction; a volume of his essays published in 
1886, reveals his scholarship and ability. Presi- 
dent Andrews said of him after his death, April 
29, 1885 : "Professor Chace had the keenest analyti- 
cal power of any thinker whom I ever heard dis- 
course * * * and he joined with this a hardly 
less remarkable faculty for generalization." 7. • 
Diana. 8. Amia Ann. 

(V) Alanson Chace, son of Charles Chace (4), 
was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, October 
22, 1795. He came to South Lancaster, now Clin- 
ton, with his father when he was very young and 
was educated there in the common schools. He 
learned the trades of tanner arrd shoemaker of his 
father. In 1818 he and his brother, Charles Chace, 
Jr., probably with the aid of their father, bought 
of Seth Grout one acre of land and of James 
Pitts one acre of land and one twentieth of the water 
power at the dam now controlled by the Lancaster 
Mills ; they erected a small tannery between the 
spot where the present machine shop stands and the 
river. He settled on the homestead at Qinton and 
as his father was old took charge of the farm and 
of the shoe making ; about 1828 he sold his house, 
shop and water rights to James Pitts. He served 
the district as member of the Lancaster school corn- 
mittee ; as one of five representing Clintonville in 
the division of property when the town of Ointon 
was incorporated, and was a selectman in the new 
town of Clinton. He was one of the organizers 
and most devoted supporters of the Baptist church 
in Clinton. He built the Chace mansion formerly on 
Prescott street, now removed to Cedar street. He 
was, in fact, one of the most honored and trusted 
as well as among the most public-spirited men of 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



the town of Clinton in its early days. He died 
February 13, 1875, at Clinton. He married Maria 
Harris and they had two children : Charles H., 
born February 19, 1826, see forward. Maria A., 
married W. H. Haskell, see forward. 

(VI) Charles H. Chace, son of Alanson Chace 
(S), was born February 19, 1826, died January 9, 
1904. He succeeded his father in possession of the 
old homestead. He took contracts for cellars' and 
excavating in the early fifties. In 1858 he went into 
business with his brother-in-law, W. H. Haskell. 
In 1861 he continued to run the grocery business 
and erected an addition to the store building which 
he occupied at that time on Mechanic street. He 
is a Baptist in religion. He had been selectman of 
the town. He married, April II, 1850, Caroline M. 
Ball, of Boylston, now deceased. They left three 
living children : A. Alanson, Addie Eliza and 
Emma Chace. 

(VI) Maria A. Chace, daughter of Alanson 
Chace (5), was born at Clinton, Massachusetts, 
February i, 1833. She married, October 20, 1855, 
William H. Haskell, who was born in Rochester, 
Massachusetts, October 20, 1824 the son of Seth 
and Unice (Hammond) Haskell, a native of Mat- 
tapoisett, Massachusetts. He spent his boyhood and 
early manhood in Rochester, acquired his education 
there in the public schools and academy. He en- 
tered the general store kept by his father and . sub- 
sequently managed a store at North Abington, Massa- 
chusetts. About 1850 he went to Clinton to work 
for his brother, David Haskell, who was seven 
years older than he, and who had already a store on 
Mechanic street on the lot afterward occupied by 
the C. H. Chace building. He soon became a part- 
ner and the business was conducted under the firm 
name of Haskell Brothers. The elder brother 
David was the victim of a dreadful accident, Sep- 
tember S, 1854. He was returning some "burning 
fluid" to a barrel when it took fire from a lantern, 
exploded, and the cellar of the store was filled with 
flame. He died from his injuries the next day. 
The home of David Haskell was on Water street 
in the brick house built by Asahel Harris. For 
more than three years William H. Haskell con- 
tinued the business alone, but in August, 1858, he 
advertised groceries and dry goods at the old stand 
in partnership with D. W. Kilburn. In the same 
year Charles II. Chace succeeded Mr. Kilburn in 
the firm. In August, 1861, the firm was dissolved 
and the business divided, Mr. Haskell keeping the 
dry goods and Mr. Chace the grocery. Mr. Has- 
kell finally sold his business to Mr. Chace. He had 
a store for a short time at the rear of his resi- 
dence on Chestnut street. During the closing 
years of the civil war he was in the grocery busi- 
ness in the basement of Burdett & Fiske's block 
on the corner of Union and High streets. In 1868 
he erected the block at the corner of Union and 
Walnut streets, where he continued in the grocery 
business until his death, December 2, 1878. He 
was a leading member of the Congregational church 
of Clinton, and his wife is still active in the church. 
He was a worthy citizen and highly respected. 

The children of William H. and Maria A. 
(Chace) Haskell were: i. Harriet M.. born June 
29, 1858, married Clarence H. Bowers, D. D. S., of 
Clinton, and the have three children — George 
F. H., Alice D., and Caroline A. 2. Alice C, 
born June 23, 1861, died in childhood. 3. Elnathan, 
born December 14, 1863, died young. 4. Minnie 
Eliza, born October 28, 1865, died in infancy. 5. 
William David, born July 9, 1867, died July 17, 
7887. 6. Mary Agnes, horn February 22, 1873, 
(lied in infancv. 



WILLIAM H. BLOOD. Richard Blood (i), 
the immigrant ancestor of William H. Blood, of 
Lancaster, Massachusetts, was one of several broth- 
ers who came to New England among the early 
settlers. Some of them owned land in Ruddington, 
Nottinghamshire, England, and it is thought they 
all hailed from that neighborhood. 

James Blood, whom good authority calls brother 
of Richard, was a yeoman and sergeant at Concord ; 
proprietor of the town and was admitted a free- 
man June 2, . 1641. He was one of the commis- 
sioners to lay out the Hough grant of four hun- 
dred acres in 1650; commissioner to end small causes 
at Chelmsford in 1660. He deposed March 30, 
1660, that he was about fifty-five years old ; he 
died September 17, 1683, and his will makes no 
mention of Richard or his other brothers. His wife 
Ellen died August I, 1674. 

John Blood settled in Lynn and he was living 
there in 1647, but removed to Concord where James 
Blood was living; his brother, Robert Blood, ad- 
ministered his estate by appointment dated Septem- 
ber 27, 1692. 

Robert Blood, probably younger than John and 
James, was a yeoman and planter at Lynn before 
1647. He and John Blood, his brother, sold a 
moiety of one tenement and half an ox gang in 
Ruddington, mentioned above, to William Crafts, 
of Lynn. He married, April 8, 1653, Elizabeth Wil- 
lard, daughter of Major Simon Willard ; he died 
October 22, 1701. 

These four immigrants are ancestors of all of 
the name, or nearly all. Richard Blood, Robert 
Blood, Joseph Blood and James Blood were among 
the original proprietors of Groton, Massachusetts. 
Richard and Robert were petitioners for the plan- 
tation. 

Richard Blood was on the first board of se- 
lectmen and served for several years afterward. 
He was town clerk in 1668 and for years was the 
largest taxpayer. He is called the chief among the 
original proprietors. He died December 7, 1783, at 

Groton. He married Isabel . Their children 

were : Mary, died April 19, 1662 ; James, of whom 
later; Nathaniel, of Groton, married, June 13, 1070, 
Hannah Parker, daughter of James Parker; Eliza- 
beth, married Thomas Tarbell ; Joseph, probably 
the proprietor mentioned above. 

(II) James Blood, son of Richard Blood (i), 
was born perhaps in England before his parents 
came over, about 1640. -He was a prominent citi- 
zen of Groton, where he was killed by the Indians 
September 13, 1692. He married, September 7, 
1669, Elizabeth Longley, daughter of William Long- 
ley. She died before 1687. He married (second) 
Abigail . The children of James and Eliza- 
beth Blood were : Richard, born May 29, 1670, died 
July 8, 1670; Mary, born September i, 1672; Eliza- 
beth, born April 27, 1675 ; Hannah, died January 6, 
1675. The children of James and Abigail Blood 
were : James, Jr., born August 12, 1687 ; John, born 
March 16, 1689, of whom later ; Martha, born Oc- 
tober 20, 1692. 

(III) John Blood, sixth child of James Blood 
(2), was born in Groton, Massachusetts, March 16, 
1689, and died August 23, 1758, in his seventieth 
year. He settled also in Groton. He married there, 
July 13, 1712, Joanna Nutting, of one of the old 
families. Their children, all born at Groton, were : 
John, born February 18. 1713-4; Elizabeth, born 
March 19, 1715-6; David, born September 28, 1718; 
Lydia. born September 28, 1720; William, born 
December 9, 1722; INIoses, born November 25. 1724; 
Hannah, born July 7. 1727; Oliver, born July 9, 
1729: Caleb, born November 2;^. 1734, of whom later. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



72, 



(IV) Caleb Blood, youngest child, of John 
Blood (3), was born November 23, 1734, at Groton, 
Massachusetts, and died there December 9. 1804, 
aged seventy years. His grave is marked by a stone 
in the old grave^'ard. He was a soldier in the 
revolution, in Captain Longley's company, Colonel 
Asa Whitcomb's regiment in 1775, and also helped 
with funds contributed to carry on the war. 

He married, November I, 1753, Hannah Holden, 
■daughter of John and Sarah (Davis) Holden. He 
married (second), March 3, 1774, Elizabeth Farns- 
worth, who died September I, 1773. She was 
a daughter of Isaac and Anna (Green) Farns- 
worth. The cliildren of Caleb and Hannah Blood 
•were : Caleb, Jr., born at Groton, October 24, 1755, 
served all through the revolution and it is difficult 
to distinguish his record from that of his father of 
the same name; Hannah, born September 23. 1757; 
John, born September 6, 1759; David (twin), born 
July 8, 1762; Samuel (twin), born July 8, 17(52. 
The children of Caleb and Elizabeth Blood were ; 
Timothy, born March 8, 1775, died January 13, 
1777; Thomas, born August 31, 1776, of whom later; 
Timothy, born September 8, 1778; Elizabeth, born 
August 25, 1780; Levi, born September 14, 1782, 
■died September 29, 1782; Sally, born August 31, 
1783; Luther, born October i, 1785; Nancy, born 
May, 1787. 

(V) Thomas Blood, son of Caleb Blood (4), 
was born August 31, 1776, at Groton, Massachusetts, 
and died there October 13. 1835, aged fifty-nine 
years. The following inscription is copied from his 
gravestone : 

"Canst thou by faith survey with joy 
The change before it comes? 

And say 'let death this house destroy, 
I have a Heavenly home.' " 

Thomas Blood was brought up in Groton and 
educated there in the common schools. He was 
well-read, a student of public questions and an in- 
fluential citizen of his native place. He was cap- 
tain of the militia company. He was a prosperous 
farmer of this city. 

He married Sarah Fitch. Their children were : 
Roxy. Millie, Betsy, Alfred, Mary, Nancy, Thomas 
F. Gilman. 

(VI) Thomas F. Blood, son of Thomas Blood 
(5), was born in Groton, Massachusetts, January 
ID, 1814, and died at Lancaster, January 23, 1S84, 
aged seventy years, according to his gravestone. He 
succeeded to the homestead of his father at Gro- 
ton and resided on it until 1845, when he removed 
to Lancaster, where he built a substantial house on 
the farm now owned by his son, William H. Blood. 
In politics he was a Whig and he took a lively in- 
terest in public affairs. He was an active mem- 
ber of the Congregational church. 

He married. January 30, 1840, Caroline E. Parker, 
•daughter of Charles Parker, of Groton. Their 
children were : Charles Edwin, born at Groton, 
April 2, 1842. served in civil war for two years in 
■Company H. Thirty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment; 
William Henry, born September 21, 1843. of whom 
later : Angelo P., born December 26, 1845 1 Caro- 
line E., born October 25. 1847 ; Ellen F., born Nov- 
ember 27, 1849; Lucius AI., born February 24, 
1856. 

(VII) William Henry Blood, son of Thomas 
F. Blood (6), was born in Groton, Massachusetts, 
September 21, 1843. He removed to Lancaster with 
his parents when he was but two years old and 
has lived there ever since. His education was ac 
quired in the public and high schools of Lancaster, 



and he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, 
working on the homestead of his father at Lan- 
caster. When he was twenty-three he purchased his 
present farm of twenty-seven acres and later added 
many acres to his farm. He is one of the most suc- 
cessful general farmers in his locality. For a num- 
ber of years he was connected with the Lancaster 
Creamery, which produced a large quantity of ex- 
cellent butter. He has an extensive dairy depart- 
ment on his farm. He has acquired a competence 
from his farm and is counted among the most sub- 
stantial citizens of the town. In politics he is a 
Republican and has frequently been chosen to posi- 
tions of trust and responsibility. He was tax col- 
lector in l868-t)9-70, was road commissioner four 
years, superintendent of streets fifteen years, was 
on the board of water commissioners for seven 
years, was on the board of selectmen from 1879 
until ' 1898. He is on the parish and church com- 
mittees of the Lancaster Congregational Church, and 
he and his family are active in church work. 

Mr. Blood married May 31, 1866, Mary E. Priest, 
daughter of Levi Priest, of Harvard, Massachu- 
setts. She was born February, 1845. Her mother 
was Eliza (Hartwell) Priest, of Groton. The chil- 
dren of William H. and Mary E. Blood are: Alice 
M., born May 18, 1867, married Screno Goodnow, 
who is an assistant on the Thayer estate, anji 
they have three children : Ellen, Edith, Grace Good- 
now ; George H., born July 26, 1869, is engaged in 
the oil business : married Florence McCloud, and 
they have three children : Mabel, Ada, George Blood ; 
Arthur W., born April 7, 1872, married Sadie Israel ; 
resides in Lancaster ; their children are : Walter R., 
and Harold William Blood; Frankie, died in in- 
fancy ; Walter, died young ; Nellie E., born Sep- 
tember 22, 1884; Horace, died young; Edgar Nelson, 
born October i, 1900. 

MANNING FAMILY. William Manning (i). 
the founder of his family in America, came to the 
colony of Massachusetts Bay at an early date. He 
came (from best evidence) from Essex county. Eng- 
land. The first nine or ten weeks — he said himself — 
he lived at Roxbury, Massachusetts, after landing 
here. He then removed to Cambridge, where docu- 
ments were first signed by him. the date not later 
than about 1634, possibly several years before. He 
was on the list of landholders in February, 1635. 
An old church record says : "Payd our brother 
Manninge for a bellrope." This was dated 1648, 
when he was engaged in "A business laudable and 
commendable." He had doubtless been a merchant 
in England. In 1638 he bought "foure acres of 
Swamp ffield of planteing grounde ; Charles Towne 
East." His son William was a journeyman in 
Middlesex county, 1652. William Manning (i) was 
a freeman (church member and voter) 1640. His 
wife Susannah died 1650, and later he removed to 
Boston and there united with the church in 1664. 
Susannah was his second wife ; of the first nothing 
is known. His third wife was Elizabeth, who out- 
lived him. He died in 1665 or 1666. He was prob- 
ably born in 1592. It is not quite clear, but from 
the best present obtainable evidence it seems that 
his children were : William, born about 1614, in 
England, and Hannah. 

(II) William Manning, son of the first to lo- 
cate on American soil, born about 1614, in England, 
came in or before 1634 to the Massachusetts Bay 
Colony, and lived in Cambridge the remainder of 
his days. He purchased lands and engaged in busi- 
ness as a merchant. He also owned a warehouse, 
boathouse, on a canal to which boats had free 
access, and constructed with his own hands a wharf 



74 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



liy his boathoiise. He was elected highway surveyor 
1651: also a "ganger" of casks and constable, 
■652-53. In 1652, i656. 1670 he was selectman; also 
for the years 1672-75-81-83 — a total of fifteen years. 
He was a member of the grand jury in 1686, 1688. 
As a selectman he was on a committee to inspect 
into the families "that there be no bye drinking or 
any misdemeanor whereby sin is committed, and 
persons from their houses unseasonably." His wife 
was Dorothy, and their children were : Hannah, 
Samuel, Sarah, John. Mary, all born and baptized 
in the church. In 1668 he was sent to England to 
procure another minister, and in 1671 Rev. Urian 
Oakes was received and ordained through their 
visit abroad. Oakes remained pastor until his 
death, and was also president of Harvard College. 
In 1670 Mr. Manning was appointed "to catechise 
the youth" of his town. The mo.st important act 
of his life was in connection with Harvard College, 
he having been selected, with Deacon John Cooper, 
to replace the old college building with a new one, 
and to receive and disburse funds for that purpose. 
This was in 1672, and his work extended until 
1684. This college was then nearer the people's 
hearts than any institution since. It was established 
by the general court (legislature) sixteen years after 
the landing of the "Mayflower." It was the pride 
and hope of the people who cast their fortunes in 
the New World. In 1639 it received the name of 
Harvard College. William Manning (2) had much 
to do with the starting of this great educational 
school. The bodies of William and Dorothy Man- 
ning were buried in the cemetery of Harvard Square, 
and the headstones, still well preserved, show that 
he died March 14. T690, and his wife July 26, 
i6g2. He died full of years and honors — a merchant, 
selectman, and held many other offices, aside from 
being a rebuilder of Harvard College. Their chil- 
dren were: l. Hannah, born 1642. 2. Samuel, born 
1644. 3- Sarah, born 1645. 4. Abigail, born 1647. 
^. John, born 1649. 6. Mary, born 1651. 7. Timothy, 
horn 1653. 

(Ill) Samuel Manning, son of William (2) and 
Dorothy, born 1644, was reared in his native town 
and educated in the midst of the good school sur- 
roundings of Cambridge. His handsome penmanship 
and easy style of composition showed him much 
superior to his associates. When eighteen years of 
age he and other associates were summoned before 
the court and reproved for firing off their guns at 
night to cause an alarm. They belonged to a 
militia company, and the real object of the alarm 
was to give the impression that Indians had attacked 
the town, but even the court was not disposed to 
look too sternly upon the boyinsh prank. He mar- 
ried at about that date (1666) and removed to 
Billerica, twenty miles distant. He was in the 
true sense a pioneer. When he settled only forty- 
six years had elapsed since the "Mayflower" landed 
on the "stern and rock-bound coast." The Indians 
were still strong on all side.s — friendly one day and 
hostile the next. King Philip's war was in 1675, 
and twice his new home was assailed by savages. 
While they lived beyond the Concord river they 
were greatly exposed to danger, conflagration and 
death. In i6g6 his new house became a "garrison." 
He was made a corporal in 1682, sergeant in 1684. 
and ensign in 1699. He followed farm life and 
endured great hardship to subdue his lands. In 
1668 he was surveyor of highways, sealer of weights 
and measures, 1675-1700; constable, 1677; trial 
juryman, 1679; assessor, 1694. 1698, 1702; tithing 
man, 1679-82-97, 1704-9; town clerk seven years; 
selectman eighteen years ; and representative, 1695- 
97. The town records are full of commissions to 



him. At various times between 1677 and 1700 he 
was connected with repairing "the great bridge" 
over the Concord river. He followed surveying a 
quarter of a century. In 1692 he was paid fourteen 
shillings for writing fourteen pages in the "town 
book." In 1693 he superintended the erection of a 
meeting house. In 1670 he was made a freeman of 
the colony. He was a large real estate holder. His 
will was made February 21, 1710. The children by 
his two wives are as follows : By Elizabeth : 
Samuel, born 1695, and John. By Abiel : Tim- 
othy, born 1673 ; Hannah, William, Mary, Sarah, 
Dorothy, Isaac, Ephraim, Elizabeth, Timothy, 
Eliphalet, Abiel. 

(IV) William Manning, son of Samuel (3), born 
June 27, 1677, at Billerica, where he always resided. 
He inherited the old homestead. He was one of 
nineteen men out of one hundred and fifty who were 
dignified by the title of "Mr." and one of ten who 
occupied the best or "fore seat below," as it was 
termed in church pews. He was prominent in the 
militia, being an ensign in 1723. He married Eliza- 
beth French, born 1679, died 1736, when he married 
Mary Shed. Ensign Manning died 1764. His chil- 
dren w'ere : Elizabeth, born 1701 ; Esther, born 
1703; Mary, 1705; William, 1707;. Jacob, 1710; 
Sarah, 1711; Rachel, 1714; Martha, 1718; Hannah, 
1719. 

(V) Jacob Manning, son of William Manning 
(4), born March '27, 1710, at Billerica, Massachu- 
setts, always resided in his native place. He received 
a portion of his father's farm by deed, or gift. His 
rate to the church in 1755 was 7 shillings, 11 pence. 
He was a journeyman in the second session of court, 
and surveyor in 1741-48-54; also a constable. He died 
1762. He married Martha Beard, and had the fol- 
lowing named children: i. Jacob, born 1739. 2. 
Mary, born 1741. 3. Isaac, born 1743. 4. Jesse, born 
1745. 5. Thomas, born 1747. 6. David, born 1749. 
7. Martha, born 1750. 8. David, born 1753. 9. 
Esther, born 1756. 

(VI) Jesse Manning, son of Jacob (5). born at 
Billerica, Alassachusetts, August 18, 1845, was a sol- 
dier of the Revolution, and marched on the Lexing- 
ton Alarm, April ig, 1775, in Col. Green's regi- 
ment. He was a farmer. After his father died he 
bought a portion of the old homestead. December 
2, 1766, he was married to Anne Carleton ; she died 
in 1/79, and he married Elizabeth Abbott of .And- 
over, Massachusetts. For his third companion he 
married ( 1802) Abigail Baldwin, who died in 1825. 
Jesse Manning died in the autumn of 1825. His chil- 
dren were: i. Mercy, born 1768. 2. David, boriT 
1751. 3. Elizabeth, born 1773. 4. Jesse, born 1776. 
5. Julia, born 1778. 

(VII) Jesse Manning, son of Jesse (6), horn 
at Billerica, Massachusetts, July 12, 1776. He re- 
sided first in his native place and then removed to 
Sutton, New Hampshire, and later to Paxton. 
Massachusetts, where his latter days were spent. In 
New Hampshire he was engaged in the lumber busi- 
ness and had a mill in connection therewith. At 
Paxton he was a carpenter. He married Mary Kil- 
bridge at Tewksbury in 1796. He died at Paxton 
July 28. 1852, having married for his second 
wife Mary Durah (or Durren). His children 
bv his first wife were: I. Jesse, born 1797. 2. 
Nancy, born 1800. The children by Mary Durah 
were: i. Elizabeth, born 1810. 2. David, born 1812. 
3. Mary Jane, born 1814. 4. Elmira, born 1816. 5. 
Samuel Stillman. born 1818, at Lexington. 

(VIII) David Manning, son of Jesse (7), born 
at Sutton, New Hampshire, .^pril 14, 1812 ; lived at 
Paxton, Leicester and Worcester, Massachusetts ; 
he died at the last named place April 15, 1890. He 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



75 



married Lucy U. Grosvenor, wlio ditd in i80. I'l^ir 
children were: I. Bethia, married Joseph A. Titus. 
2. George G. 3. Theodore. 4. David. 5. Charles 
W. 6. Joseph Avery. 7. Frederick. During^ the 
rebellion he was a member of the Freedom Club, 
a loyal organization, and was one of three of its 
business committee. 

(IX) Joseph Avery Manning, son of David and 
Lucy B. (Grosvenor) Manning, born February 19. 
1851, at Worcester. He married Ella Amsden, and 
thtir children were; I. Joseph Nelson, born June 
30, 1879. 2. Frances G., born April 21, 1883. 3. Ed- 
ward Avery, born September 14, 1894. 

(IX) Charles Walter .Manning, son of David 
and Lucy B. (Cirosvenor) Manning, born August 
2, 1848; married Eva W. Parker and had: 1. Wal- 
ter Webster, born May 24, 1875. 2. Frank Gros- 
venor, born January i, 1877; died May 6, 1879. 3. 
Earl G., born January 9, 1881. 

(IX) George G. Alanning, son of David and 
Lucy B. (Grosvenor) Manning, born October 20, 
1842 ; married Ellen Moore, and had one son Roger, 
born February 21, 1879. 

(IX) Theodore Manning, son of David and 
Lucy B. (Grosvenor) Planning, born in Paxton, 
Massachusetts, October, 1844, became a member of 
the Manning Shoe and Rubber Company, and for 
•more than forty years resided at Worcester. When 
twenty years of age he came to Worcester, in 
1856. He completed his education in the public 
schools and acquired his good business training 
with E. A. Goodnow, wholesale boot and shoe 
dealer, after which he became a member of the S. 
R. Heywood & Company, as a shoe manufacturer. 
In 1870 he associated himself with his brother 
George G. and B. W. Childs. The latter withdrew 
from the concern and the two brothers continued 
until 1896, when he was transferred to Boston, be- 
ing consolidated with that of J. A. Manning, thus 
forming the Manning Shoe and Rubber Company. 
Our subject's health failed and on April 28, 1898, 
he passed from earthly scenes. He married Caro- 
line E. Woods, of Hardwick, Massachusetts, and 
left eight children ; Frederick, Charles S., Grace 
W., Florence, David R., Robert H., Harold G., and 
Clarence W. Charles S. resides in Ohio, the others 
at Newton. He was a regular attendant of the 
Plymouth church from the time of its formation. 
He had a wide circle of personal friends. 

(IX) Hon. David Manning, son of David and 
Lucy B. (Grosvenor) Manning, was born August 
29, 1846. The tirst ten years of his life was spent 
in Leicester, to which place his parents had moved 
from Pa.xton, Massachusetts, when he was an in- 
fant. After 1856 Worcester was his home. He was 
proud of his ancestry, tracing family ties back to 
Samuel Adams. David, the father of our subject, 
was one of six children; all of with the exception of 
Joseph Manning, member of the shoe jobbing firm 
of Boston, known as Manning Brothers, are dead. 
The others were : George C, Theodore Walter and 
Mrs. Joseph A. Titus. 

Mr. Manning was educated in the public schools, 
graduating in 1865 from the Worcester high school, 
where he was awarded prizes for efficiency in dif- 
ferent branches. In the autumn of 1865 he entered 
Yale College, from which he graduated in high rank 
in 1869. Hf then entered Harvard Law School, 
but failing health compelled him to leave the con- 
finement of college life, but he entered the law office 
of Col. Joseph A. Titus, his brother-in-law, and 
H. O. Smith. In 1872 he was admitted to the prac- 
tice of his chosen profession. Soon after he ac- 
cepted a position in the law office of Rice & Black- 
mer, where he gained wide experience in bank- 



ruptcy proceedings. In 1880 he left this firm, and 
associated himself for a time with Burton W. Potter, 
but soon opened an office of his own. He was re- 
garded by his fellow associates at the bar as among 
the most prominent in the county. Taking much in- 
terest in public affairs he was elected as a representa- 
tive from Ward No. 7 in 1887 and in 1899, the record 
time, and there became prominent through his serv- 
ice on the judiciary committee. In 1900 he was 
elected to the state senate, serving two years. Prior 
to having served in the legislature he was an asso- 
ciate justice of the Central district court from iS8t 
to 1887, when he resigned. He was a member of 
the state central committee in 1888, 1897, 1898, and 
was frequently urged to become a candidate for 
mayor of Worcester, but declined the honor. He 
aspired to be a congressman in 1902, but was de- 
feated in nomination by Rufus B. Dodge. Mr. Man- 
ning, who died Thursday, January 5, 1905, was a 
great lover of home life. A devoted husband and 
father, he spent all possible time at his owti home 
circle, finding supreme happiness in the quiet of the 
sacred precincts of his own affairs. He was not 
a secret society man, and did not believe in some 
respects in secret organizations, but was in sympathy 
with the great "principles of the benevolent features 
of such institutions. He was an honored member of 
the Commonwealth and Tatnuck Clubs. He was an 
active member and supporter of Unity Church, be- 
ing the chairman of the pastoral committee. The 
year 1878 marked a new era in Mr. Manning's life, 
in his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander" 
Bigelow and wife, born January 16, 1849. Airs. 
Manning and one son, Alexander Bigelow Manning, 
survive him. Shortly after their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Manning toured abroad, returning in the 
autumn of that year. One of his most intimate 
associates, Charles R. Johnson, remarked upon hear- 
ing of his sudden death from apoplexy : "I .shall never 
meet a better man. He stood for honesty, integrity and 
reliability and the highest sense of honor. He was 
indeed the most high-minded man I ever met." He 
disliked to take a case that he did not believe in, 
but when his heart was in the case he was an an- 
tagonist to be legally feared. He would fight a case 
to the bitter end if he believed he was right, his 
client's cause in such instance becoming his own. 
He was well read in philosophy as well as law, and 
was made up of the most sterling qualities. He 
was laid to rest in Hope Cemetery. As an exponent 
of law, a radical temperance advocate, a conscien- 
tious citizen, a loving home companion and an in- 
dulgent father, no better, truer type of manhood 
ever graced the city of Worcester. 

PERLEY PIERCE COMEY, M. D. David 
Comey (i) was the emigrant ancestor of Dr. Perley 
Pierce Comey, of Worcester. He was in Woburn 
as early as 1663 and was doubtless the first of the 
name in this country. Family tradition says that 
he was born in Scotland. His son John married the 
daughter of a Scotchman, and the district in which 
he lived in Concord later was known as Scotland. 
The name is spelled Comee by part of the descend- 
ants. In the earlier days it was spelled in various 
ways, Comy. Come, Comi, Comay and Coomy. 

About 1664 David Comey removed from VVoburn, 
where he first settled, and made his home in Con- 
cord. Massachusetts, and there he lived the re- 
mainder of his days. He was killed while a soldier 
in King Philip's war in the Sudbury fight, described 
elsewhere in this work, April 21, 1676. There is a 
pathetic petition on file in the archives of the general 
court wherein the widow recites her woes after the 
loss of hfr husband. He was a young man, born 



76 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



about 1640, and when he was killed the widow had 
six small children including a baby six weeks old 
and four children of the first marriage to care for. 
The estate amounted to only eighty-seven pounds, 
fifty of which was represented by the house and 
land and the rest by clothing and furniture. She 
had to give away the children. In the. petition she 
prayed that Captam Timothy Wheeler be named 
guardian for the purpose. The records fail to tell 
us how the orphans of the soldier fared later. 

David Comey married (first) Elizabeth, who 
died at Concord, INIay 4, 1671, leaving four chil- 
dren. He married (second) Esther . His 

widow married (second), November 7, 1682, Sam- 
uel Parry. The children of David and Elizabeth 
Comey were : Elizabeth, married, March 29, 1691, 
John Kendall, born 1646, died 1732, of Woburn, 
where she died December, 1701 (See Kendall 
Sketch) ; Mary, born January 30, 1663, married, 
May 24, 1688, Joshua Kibby, of Sherburn and died 
July g, 1712; lie died 1731; John, of whom later; 
David, born November 14, 1666, died before 1676; 
Sarah. The children of David and Esther Qoniey 
were two daughters, one of whom was Esther, born 
February 14, 1676. 

(H) John Comey, tliird child of David Comey 
(i), was born in Concord, Massachusetts, October 
18, 1665. He was a farmer. He removed from 
Concord to Cambridge Farms, as Lexington was 
then called, in 1689. He died in Lexington, 1729, 
aged sixty-four years. The date 1723 given in the 
Cambridge history is incorrect. 

He married, June 21, 1688, Martha Alunroe, who 
w-as born»November 2, 1667, the eldest daughter of 
William Munroe, a Scotch soldier sent over a pris- 
oner of war by Cromwell. (See Sketch of Munroe 
Family). Their first four children were baptized 
February 26, 1699. Their children were : John, born 
at Concord, April 8, 1687, died young probably ; 
Hannah, died unmarried May 26, 1720; Martha, 
died July 9, 1713; David, of whom later; Eliza- 
beth, born January 29, 1701, at Lexington; Abigail, 
baptized October 26, 1707, married, January 4, 1728, 
Jonas Pierce, and died at Westminster, Alassa- 
chusetts. 

(HI) David Comey, fourth child of John Comey 
(2), was born in Lexington, Massachusetts, January 
II, 1696. If family tradition is correct he died in 
1800 at the age of one hundred and four years. In 
1729 he was called a yeoman. In 1736 he was an 
inn-holder. 

He married (first) Ruhama Brown, daughter of 
Joseph and Ruhamah Brown. She was born in 
Watertown, July 15, 1701, died June 3, 1730. He 

married (second) Sarah . There were five 

or si.x children by the first marriage, who died 
young. Only two of the children of David and 
Ruhamah (Brown) Comey survived, viz.; John, 
baptized September 28, 1725 ; Joseph, baptized 
August 4, 1728. The children of David and Sarah 
Comey were: Benjamin, born November 15, 1733; 
Sarah, September II, 1735; Mary, April 11, 1738; 
Ezekiel, April 27, 1740; Ruhama, April 15. 1742; 
David, April 21, 1744; Jonathan, April 4, 1746. 

(IV) Jonathan Comey, youngest child of David 
Comey (3), was born in Lexington, IMassachusetts, 
April 4, 1746. When he was a young boy he went 
to Fo.\boro, where some of his elder brothers set- 
tled, and while still a young man removed to Hollis- 
ton, Massachusetts, where he lived with Samuel 
Messinger. After he married he went to live in the 
west part of Hopkinton on the west side of White- 
hall Pond. , At the Lexington Alarm April 19, 
1775. he turned out with the minute men. He served 
in the revolution in Captain John Holmes' company. 



Colonel Samuel BuUard's regiment. His name was 
spelled Jno. Commey on the rolls. 

He married Elizabeth Wells about 1768. Their 
children were : Parmelia, married Nathaniel Cham- 
berlain, of HoUiston, and settled in Wardsboro, Ver- 
mont; Royal, of whom later; Betsey, married Joshua 
Mellen, and resided in Westboro, Massachusetts ; 
their only son was Judge Edward Mellen, of Wor- 
cester; they had four daughters; Polly (Mary), 
married Jonathan Fairbanks, and lived in Holden ; 
Nellipee, married John Wheelock, of Vermont ; she 
died at the birth of her son John, who was brought 

up by Adams; Hannah, married Abner 

Prentiss, of Hopkinton. 

(V) Royal Comey, second child of ^Jonathan 
Comey (4), was born in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, 
January 29, 1772. He died in Hopkinton, October. 
1853, aged eighty years. He was a well-to-do 
farmer. He always lived in his native town of 
Hopkinton. His place was on the east side of 
Whitehall pond, and he also owned a large tract 
on the western side and also an island in the pond, 
now known as Comey's island. 

He married Polly Andrews, of Millford, who 
died August 29, 1873, aged eighty-eight years, eight 
months, eight days. The children of Royal and 
Polly (Andrews) Comey were: Hiram, born July 
18, 1806, married, 1832, Emily Gibbs; Elbert, August,. 
1806, married twice and had seven children ; El- 
bridge Gerry, of whom later ; Dexter, February 21, 
1814, died in Westboro, November 8, 1892; Martha 
Ann, August 19, 1817, married William B. Wales, of 
Hopkinton, who died April 13, 1S45, leaving one 
child, Mary Ann; Mary, July 12, 1823, died July, 
1844. 

(VI) Elbridge Gerry Comey, third child of 
Royal Comey (5), and father of Dr. Perley P. 
Comey (VII), was born in Hopkinton, Massachu- 
setts, November 11, 1811. He married Abigail J. 
Pierce. He was a farmer. He settled first in Hol- 
liston, but in i860 returned to his native town, Hop- 
kinton, Massachusetts, to live. He was a man of 
sterling character and exemplary life. He died in 

Hopkinton, , 1868. They had children : Amanda 

.•\nn, born December 20, 1832, died November 10, 
1856; educated at Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary; 
Aratus, born October 27, 1837 ; Henry Newton, born 
March 4, 1840; Manlius, born March 18, 1843; 
Mary Abby, born November 28, 1845, married, July 
IS, 1868, George S. Gibson, of Hopkinton, Massa- 
chusetts, has five children, resides in Clinton, Massa- 
chusetts : and Perley P., of whom later. 

(VII) Dr. Perley Pierce Comey, youngest son 
of Elbridge Gerry Comey (6), was born in HoUis- 
ton, Massachusetts, January 14, 1852. He removed 
to Hopkinton with the family when eight years old. 
He spent his boyhood and youth helping his father 
on the farm when he was not attending the district 
schools of Holliston and Hopkinton. In i858, after 
his father died, he was sent to the Oread high 
school in Worcester, a classical school connected 
with the Oread Institute at that time. He after- 
ward learned the business of a druggist and phar- 
macist in Worcester. He began to study msdicine 
in the office of Dr. A. P. Richardson, of Boston. 
He graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 
1878. In the following August he began to practice 
his profession in Clinton, Massachusetts. Almost 
from the start he received liberal patronage and soon 
had a very extensive practice, not only in Clinton 
but in all the adjoining towns. Ever ready to sym- 
pathize and advise the afflicted and suffering, he be- 
came popular wherever he was known. He was not 
only a successful physician and skillful surgeon, but 
his tact and excellent judgment were quickly rec- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



77 



ogiiized by his patients. He removed to the hirger 
field of Worcester about 1897, thougii still retain- 
ing much of his county practice. He .resides at 
63 Lincoln street, and his office is at 61 Lincoln 
street. Dr. Comey stands high in the estimation of 
iiis fellow practitioners in Worcester, and in hos- 
pital and private practice has been singularly for- 
tunate in recent years. He is a member of the 
.Massachusetts Medical Society. He is a prominent 
Free Mason and Odd Fellow. 

He married, in 1S73, :Marion L. Jones, daughter 
of John O. Jones, of Boston, and granddaughter of 
the late Colonel James Estabrook, of Worcester, 
with whom slie lived. They have three children, 
viz.: 1. Effie M., born in Clinton, a graduate of 
Smith CoUtge, married D. E. Manson, ot Bruokline, 
Massachusetts, manager of the Westinghouse Elec- 
tric Company of Boston ; they have two children : 
Marian and John T. ; Gertrude J., born in Clin- 
ton, a graduate of Smith College, resides at home ; 
Clifton J., born in Clinton, a graduate of Worcester 
Academy, class of 1905, now (.1906) a student m 
Boston. 

OLIVER WILLIS RUGG. John Rugg was the 
emigrant ancestor of Oliver Willis Rugg and Arthur 
P. Rugg. of Worcester, and probably of all the 
families of that surname in this vicinity. He came 
to this country about 1650 and settled at Water- 
town, but soon removed and was one of the fir.st 
settlers of Lancaster, Massachusetts. Rugg is an 
ancient family in Norfolk county, England, and 
Lord Braybrooke says that two men of this branch 
of the family were aldermen of Norwich. One re- 
port states that John Rugg was born in Sowerby, 
Halifax parish, England, March 11, 1632. John 
Riigg was in Lancaster in 1652. He married first, 
in "j6;4, Martha Prescott, and (second). Hannah 
Prescott, both daughters of Jonathan and Mary 
(Platts) Prescott. He was very active in town 
affairs. He was admitted a freeman in 1669. His 
wife Martha died May 4, 1660. after having had 
two children, both of whom died young. John 
Rugg died at Lancaster in 1696. His widow was 
killed bv the Indians at Lancaster, September 22, 

1697. His children were: I. died January 

18, 1655-6. 2. John, born January 17, 1655-6, died 
Januarv 29. 1655-6. 3- John, born June 4. 1662, 
died 1712: had: i. John. ii. Samuel, settled at 
Hadley. iii. Nathaniel, iv. David, v. Jonathan, 
vi. Benjamin. vii. Mary. viii. Abigail. 4. Mary, 
born July 11, 1664. 5. Thomas, born September 15, 
1666. resided at Lexington, Massachusetts; married 

Elizabeth , and had: i. Thomas, born 

December 6, 1691. ii. William, born November 19, 
1693. iii. Elizabeth, born January 20. 1695. iv. 
Hannah, born April 26. 1697. v. Abigail, born 
March 13. 1699. vi. Sarah, born February 12. 1702. 
vii. Mary, born May 30. 1703. viii. Ruth, born Sep- 
tember, 1706. i-x. Tabitha. born September 10, 1708. 
X. Milicent, born November 11, 1710. xi. Martha, 
born November 10. 1713. 6. Joseplj, born Decem- 
ber 15, 1668. (Joseph, his wife and three children 
and his mother Hannah were murdered by the In- 
dians at their home in Lancaster, September 22, 
1697. The others killed at that time were : Rev. 
Mr. W'hiting. Daniel Hudson, his wife and two 
daughters: Ephraim Roper, wife and daughter : John 
Skait and wife; Jonathan Fairbank, Widow 
Wheeler, Mary Glazier, and a son of each of Eph- 
raim Roper. John Skait and Joseph Rugg. Most 
of these families were in South Lancaster. Peace 
had already been declared between Great Britain 
and France when this attack was made.) 7. Hannah, 
born January 2, 1671, married John Bell, 1690. 8. 



Rebecca, born May 16, 1673, married Nathaniel 
Hudson. 9. Daniel, born November 15, 1678. 10. 
Jonathan, born February 10, 1681, settled in Marl- 
l>orough, Massachusetts, married Sarah, daughter of 
John Newton; removed to Framingham, Massa- 
chusetts; married (second) Hannah Singletary ; 

married (third) Elizabeth , who was living 

when he died. December 25, 1753. 

(II) Daniel Rugg, son of John Rugg (i), lived 
in that part of Lancaster that is now Sterling. He 
was born September 15, 1678, at Concord, while the 
family was away from Lancaster. He died at Sterl- 
ing, June 23. 175S. He was constable in 1718, and 
always prominent in church affairs at South Lan- 

 caster or Sterling. He lived near the Sawyers, 
Fairbanks, Samuel Prescott, John Harris and Rev. 
Andrew Gardner. They served together in the same 
garrison by order of the general court at Mr. Gard- 
ner's house, on the west side of the Nashua river. 
Daniel Rugg saw much service during the Indian 
troubles. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Reu- 
ben Priest, of Sterling, March 10, 1730. He died 
June 2^. 1758. His wife died December 3, 1754. 
He joined the church March 3, 1716-17; she joined 
April I, 1716-17. Both had been members of the 
l^anca--ter church. Daniel Rugg signed the cove- 
nant in 1708 at Lancaster. Children of Daniel and 
Elizabeth Rugg: I. Captain Daniel. 2. Reuben, 
born at Sterling, married Lydia Ross. 3. Amos, 
Ijorn December 17, 1716, baptized January 20, 1717. 

4. Nathan, born April 13, 1718. 5. Isaac, baptized 
April 3. 1720. 6. Sarah, baptized July 21, 1728. 
7. Mary (full communion). May 6, 1733. 

(III) Amos Rugg, son of Daniel Rugg (2), 
was born at Sterling, December 17,1716; married De- 
cember 29, 1741, Mary Burpee, and settled in Sterl- 
ing. He was a farmer. Children of Amos and 
Mary (Burpee) Rugg: i. Amos, born January 6, 
1744-45, died September 11, 1746. 2. Amos, (2d), 
born March 1747, married Sarah Willard 1769. in- 
tentions recorded February 8, 1769. 3. Mary, born 
May 7, 1750. 4. Stephen, born October 30, 1751, 
died October 19, 1756. 5. Solomon, born March 17, 
1754, died Novemljer 5. 1756. 6. Phebe, born June 

5, 1756. 7. Olive, born April 6. 1760. 8. Pamelia, 
l)orn April 12. 1762. 9. Hannah, born June 22, 1764. 
fo. Luther, born April 12, 1770. 

(IV) Luther Rugg. son of Amos Rugg (3), 
was born at Sterling, then the western part of Lan- 
caster. April 12, 1770, and died in Sterling October 
20, 1863. He was prominent in town afifairs. an 
active and useful citizen. He was elected a member 
of the committee on laying out roads in 1817; as 
assessor six years, 181S-27; served on the school 
committee five years, »8i8-25 ; on board of over- 
seers of poor 1820 and 1821 ; on board of officers 
to preserve order in public worship, in 1820, 1824, 
7826 and 1827; elected field driver 1825 and 1832, 
-ind member of committee on gift of the Jacob 
Conant farm to the town in 1839. He married 

luhe 22. 1800. Ruth Jewett, daughter of Amos 
Jewett, who was born in Lancaster, March, 1747, 
died at Lancaster, April 15, 1781, married, October, 
1768. Sarah Willard. Amos Jewett was a soldier 
in the Continental army during the revolutionary 
war in the campaign about Boston. Ruth was born 
January 16, 1776, and died September 20, 1864. 
Their children: i. Harriet, born March ,so. 1801, 
died August 23, 1892 ; married Spencer Wilder. 2. 
Mason, born September 16. 1802, died September 7, 
1S04. 3. Luther Warren, born August 24. 1804, 
died December 14. 1859. 4. Amos Willard, born 
February 2},, 1806. died June 2. 1866. 5. Ruth Eliza, 
born February 13, 1808. died April 19. 1836. married 
Charles Powers. 6. John Abbot, born June 19, 



78 



WORCESTER COUXTY 



1810, died June 25, 1814. ". Adolpha, born December 
15, 1812, died September 24, 1861, married William 
Crowell, 1850. 8. Augustus Kendall, born February 
17, 1815, died August 7, 1843. 9. Prentice Mason, 
born July 22, 1817. died February 25, 1885. 

(.V) Prentice Mason Rugg, son of Lutber Rugg 
(4), born at Sterling. July 22, 1817, died in Boston, 
February 25. 1885. He carried on a farm at Sterl- 
ing, and taugbt scbool in tbe winter for many years 
in Lancaster and Sterling. For twenty-one winters 
in succession he taught school, and later four years 
more. He was frequently honored by his fellow 
citizens. He served as assessor nineteen years, from 
1855 to 1881. as member of school committee, nine 
years from 1847 to i860 as inoderator of town ineet- 
ings : eight years from 1869 to 1879 as selectman; 
as juryman eight terms from 1868 to 1882; as high- 
way surveyor four years froin 1843 to 1869; as trus- 
tee of the Conant fund three years from 1868 to 
1870. and other various committees. He married, 
June 15, 1847. Cynthia Ross. She was born in 
Bakersfield, Vermont, December 17, 1825, daughter 
of Willis and Mary (Taylor) Ross. Both of her 
parents were born in Sterling and removed to 
Bakersfield. The children of Prentice Mason and 
Cynthia (Ross) Rugg were: I. John Mason, born 
June 6. 1848. died in Sterling, August 28, 1866 ; was 
educated in common schools of Sterling and was 
fitted for college in the Lancaster Academy under 
W. A. Kilburn. principal. He taught the South 
Lancaster grammar school during the winter term 
of 1865 and 1866. 2. Oliver Willis, born March 
24, 1S50. 3. Carrie Hannah, born February 7, 1852, 
married Herbert R. Sylvester, who was born in 
Newton, Massachusetts, and is principal of the Claf- 
lin School of Newton. Carrie Hannah was edu- 
cated in the public schools and at the State Normal 
School at Salem, class of 1873. She taught school 
at Lancaster and Sterling, Wellesley aiid Newton. 
They reside at Newtonville. 4. Arthur Prentice, 
born August 20, 1862, married Florence Belcher, 
of W^orcester : has had four children. 5. Mary 
Tavlor, .born September 4, 1864, died September i. 
1866. 

(VI) Oliver Willis Rugg, son of Prentice 
Mason Rugg (5), was born at Sterling, March 24, 
1850. His early days were spent on the farm in that 
town. He attended the district schools of Sterling, 
and later spent two terms at the Lancaster Academy 
under W. A. Kilburn, principal. He taught the 
Chocksett district school during the w'inter term 
of 1868-69, aud later substituted in Sterling for his 
sister Carrie H., so that she might accept a better 
position which had been offered her after she had 
been engaged at Sterling. iHe entered the Wor- 
cester Polytechnic Institute in September, 1869, 
.graduating in 1872. in the second class graduated 
from that Institute. .-Xmong his classmates were 
Parkman T, Denny, of Leicester, A. W. Woods, of 
Worcester ; George H. Scott of the Morgan Spring 
Company of Worcester ; Solon Davis and Jonathan 
Monre. of Holden ; Herbert S. Rice, of Barre : S. 
C. Heald, Jr., of Jamica Plains ; and M. B. Smith, 
of Lowell. During the vacation. of 1871 he worked 
with William A. Smith, engineer in charge of the 
water supply for the city of Fitchburg. In Septem- 
ber. 1872, he went to work for George Raymond, 
who was engineer in charge of the preliminary sur- 
veys for the introduction of water into the town of 
Leominster, also into the city of Springfield : en- 
gineer for the Vermont & Massachusetts Railroad 
Company, and engineer for the Fitchburg Railroad 
Company. While in his employ Mr. Rugg made 
estimates for the Leominster water supply, surveys 
and estimates for the Springfield water supply, and 



did much of the engineering for the Vermont & 
Massachusetts Railroad Company, and some for the 
Fitchburg Railroad Company. Mr. Raymond was 
elected city engineer of Fitchburg the first year it 
was incorporated as a city, and he gave into the 
hands of Mr. Rugg the engineering for the street 
departinent of that city. After leaving Mr. Ray- 
mond, Mr. Rugg worked for a time on his own 
account at Clinton and other places. It was at this 
time that he substituted in the school at Sterhng 
for his sister. He was elected a member of the 
school committee about this time and served for 
many terms. In 1878 he formed a partnership with 
his classmate, A. W. Woods, as civil engineers and 
. surveyors, and they opened an office at 44 Front 
street, Worcester. Three years later they moved 
to the Rogers Block, at the corner of Pleasant and 
Main streets, and still later to the J. H. Walker 
building at the corner of Barton Court and Main 
street. This firm had all the work of the Wash- 
burn & Moen Manufacturing Company until thry 
established an office of their own. They also had 
the work of George Crompton for many years. 
The firm made a preliminary survey to Marlboro 
for H. H. Bigelow, who planned to extend the line 
he had built to the Lake. They also made an ac- 
curate survey and very artistic plan of Lake Quin- 
sigamond for Mr. Bigelow. They did the prelimi- 
nary surveying for the Grafton, Upton & Milford 
Railroad, and carried out the construction of a part 
of that road. Mr. Rugg, for the firm, made the 
plans and superintended the construction of the 
first electric railroad in Worcester, the Worcester, 
Leicester & Spencer Electric Street Railway. The 
firm were the engineers for the Worcester & Mill- 
bury Electric Street Railway Company. In 1893 
they made prelintinary surveys for electric railways 
from Worcester to Southbridge, Webster, North- 
bridge, via the Blackstone Valley, and to Marlboro. 
This was done by order of the late Samuel Winslow, 
who was then president and one of the promoters 
of the Worcester, Leicester and Spencer Electric 
Railway. None of these roads, however, were built 
under these franchises. Mr. Rugg and his partner 
dissolved in 1894. and Mr. Rugg opened his office 
in the Day building, on Main street. After that 
building was destroyed by fire in March, 1897, he 
moved to his present office. Room 824, State Mutual 
Building. He has been occupied much of the time 
with street railway work, although his office has 
had a large variety of work for individuals and 
corporations in Worcester county. He engineered 
the relocation of the Worcester, Leicester & Spencer 
Electric Street Railway to conform to the state 
highway, made preliminary surveys for an electric 
railway from Pen Yan to Brancliport, in the state 
of New York, on which he was afterward the con- 
structing engineer, was constructing engineer for 
the Worcester & Clinton Street Railway Company, 
relocated and constructed a part of the Worcester 
& Webster Street Railway, was constructing en- 
gineer for the \yorcester & Southbridge Street Rail- 
way Company, made preliminary surveys for an 
electric railway from Washington Junction to Cas- 
tine. in the state of Maine, a distance of about forty 
miles ; this road, however, has never been built. He 
has also made preliminary surveys, plans and esti- 
mates for a railroad to connect at Millbury with 
the Worcester Consolidated Street Railway, and 
run to Singletary Lake, a railroad from Fiskdale 
tn Palmer, an extension of the Southbridge &.Stur- 
bridge Street Railway, and one from Whitinsville 
to Providence, an extension of the Blackstone Valley 
Street Railway, but these likewise were never built. 
He has in the past few years done practically all of 




UPmi^ rfu\ 



1f 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



79 



Jlic ciigiiK'cring for the Worcester Consolidated 
Street Kailway Company. Plans and estimates have 
been prepared' lor the abolition of grade crossings 
in the towns of Webster and Winchendon under 
his supervision. Mr. Rugg is a member of Athels- 
tan Lodge, A. F. and A. M. ; of Hiram Council, of 
Worcester Chapter, of the Worcester County Com- 
mandery, Knights Templar, and he has taken all 
the degrees to and including the thirty-second in 
the Scottish Rite. He is Republican in politics and 
a menil)er of the Board of Trade. 

He married. May 14, 1902, Maud Edith Thresher, 
daughter of Harrison O. and Mary Lizzie (HincU- 
lev) Thresher, of Hardwick, Massachusetts. Their 
children are. i. Oliver Willis, Jr., born October 28, 
1903. 2. Alma Beatrice, born April 6, 1905, both 
born at Worcester. 

ARTHUR PRENTICE RUGG. (6). son of 
Prentice M. Rugg (5). was born at Sterling, Massa- 
chusetts, August 20. 1862. (For ance.'^tery see sketch 
of his brother, O. Willis Rugg.) 

Arthur P. Rugg passed his youthful days at 
home in his native town, where he attended the 
district schools, and later prepared for college at 
Lancaster high school, from which institution he 
was graduated in 1879. He entered Amherst Col- 
lege, was graduated cum laudc in 1883, and im- 
mediately began the study of law, entering the 
Boston University Law School. In 1886 he received 
Tiis degree of Bachelor of Laws magna cum laude, 
was admitted to the bar the same year, and was 
selected to serve as class orator at the commence- 
ment exercises. Worcester having been chosen as 
the central field for his work, he entered into a law 
partnership with John R. Thayer, recently repre- 
sentative in congress from the third Massachusetts 
district. The firm of Thayer & Rugg in 1886 had 
their offices in the Walker building, but the present 
spacious offices of the firm are to be found on the 
eighth floor of the State Mutual building, where 
they located shortly after the completion of the 
building. 

Mr. Rugg's professional career has been very act- 
ive and successful. He has won many notable victories 
for his firm, having few equals as a trial lawyer 
and no superior in the preparation of cases. He 
has confined himself to no special line of practice, 
and though not generally known as a criminal 
lawyer has had an extended experience in the crim- 
inal courts, having in 1893 and 1894 served as as- 
sistant district attorney pro tempore, and in April. 
1895. was appointed assistant district attorney by 
Herbert Parker. He was chosen city solicitor, July 
5. 1897. to succeed William S. B. Hopkins, and has 
been annually re-elected since that year, a fact 
'which testifies to his sterling integrity and quali- 
fications for office. This is one of the most im- 
portant positions of the kind in the state, and his 
excellent service rendered in behalf of the public 
during his term of office has won for him the com- 
plete confidence of the citizens and taxpayers of 
the city. He was admitted to practice in the supreme 
court of the United States. November 28. 1904. for 
the purpose of arguing writs of error in the famous 
cases of the City of Worcester I's. the Worcester 
Consolidated Street Railway in relation to condi- 
tions in location for tracks. He has devoted him- 
self exclusively to the w-ork of his profession, avoid- 
ing political office and other interests that he felt 
would conflict with the requirements of his chosen 
vocation. His services as counsel for various towns 
in the county when involved in litigation have been 
often sought. He is counsel for many corporate 
interests, and has a large clientage among all classes. 



In recent years he has been called ui)on to serve 
on many important commissions to aliolish grade 
crossings and to determine apportionments in the 
Metropolitan district. Mr. Rugg had a brief service 
in the common council of Worcester, representing 
his ward in 1894-95. and during his second year 
was president of the board. He has been a trustee 
of the Worcester Mechanics Savings Bank since 
1897, and was a director of the First National 
Bank from 1900 to 1903, when the bank went into 
voluntary liquidation. He is a member of Athels- 
tan Lodge, Ancient. Free and Accepted Masons ; 
Hiram Council; Worcester Chapter; Worcester 
County Commandery, Knights Templar. He is a 
member of the Worcester Club, Commonwealth 
Club, American Bar As.sociation, Appalachian Club 
of Boston, American Forestry Association, Wor- 
cester Board of Trade, Worcester County Horti- 
cultural Society, Worcester County Agricultural 
Society, and the Worcester Society of Antiquity. He 
is president of the Amherst College Alumni Associa- 
tion (1906), a trustee of the School of Expression, 
Boston, an active member of the Church of the 
Unity (Unitarian), of Worcester, a member of the 
parish committee, and a Republican in politics. 

Mr. Rugg has met with uncommon success in 
the prosecution of his chosen profession because 
of the elements of success within him. He is 
studious, thoughtful, quick to comprehend, has in 
store a generous fund of practical knowledge, and 
is a gentleman and a man of honor. Aside from 
his extensive yet rapidly increasing legal practice, 
he has found time to respond to invitations to de- 
liver various addresses, among which might be 
named a memorial address at Sterling, Massa- 
chusetts, on the death of the late President McKin- 
ley ; and "Colonial Farm Life in Colonial New 
England." delivered before the Worcester Society 
of Antiquity. He has also delivered Memorial Day 
addresses before various Grand Army Posts, also 
on other public occasions, some of which may be 
found in print. He has also been called upon to 
act on various commissions and boards of arbitra- 
tions when questions of law were involved. 

As these pages were undergoing revision. ^Ir. 
Rugg was paid the high compliment of having been 
selected by Governor Guild to fill the vacancy oc- 
casioned by the resignation of Hon. John Lathrop. 
and was accordingly commissioned associate justice 
of the supreme court, and took his seat on the bench, 
in the court house at Worcester, on October i. 1906. 

Mr. Rugg married, in Worcester, Massachusetts, 
.\pril 10, 1889. Florence May Belcher, daughter of 
Charles and Esther (Jewett) Belcher, of Worcester. 
Their children are: Charles Belcher, born Janu- 
ary 20, 1890 ; Arthur Prentice, Jr., born August 22, 
1893; Esther Cynthia, born September 5. 1896: Don- 
ald Sterling, born August 18, 1898, died February 
22, 1899. 

ANDREW J. BANCROFT. Lieutenant Thomas 
Bancroft (i). son of John and Jane Bancroft, was 
born in England in 1622. He was the immigrant 
ancestor of Andrew J. Bancroft, of Lancaster. 
Massachusetts. His father also came over but died 
in Lynn in 1637. His mother. Jane Bancroft, had 
land assigned to her in Lynn where the family first 
settled in New England. She was living in Lymv 
in 16.38. 

Thomas Bancroft was living in Dedham. Massa- 
chusetts, in 1647. and was admitted to townsman 
in T648. He removed in 1652 or 1653, when his 
name first appears on the church records of Read- 
ing. Massachusetts, but there is no proof that he 
ever lived within the limits of that town, but he 



go 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



certainly lived in that vicinity the remainder of 
his days. He hired a five hundred acre farm of 
Samuel Bennett in what is now Saugus, an adja- 
cent town, and the Reading church was the nearest 
to his home, so he belonged to that parish. The 
town lines in that neighborhood seem to have been 
indefinite. He was not a proprietor of the town 
of Reading, but his son Thomas lived in Reading 
and became a very prominent citizen there. 

The home of Lieutenant Thomas Bancroft was 
just south of the Straits, a narrow roadway through 
the rocky hills leading from Reading to Saugus. 
It is still known as the Bancroft place. The sur- 
vey of the line between Lynn and Charlestown 
made about 1670 mentions the "house that was En- 
sign Bancroft's." About that time he bought seventy 
acres of land at Lynnfield, three miles from Reading 
church, which was still the nearest to his home. 
In 1678 the deed of the adjoining Holyoke farm 
recites "that it had been for some time in posses- 
.-ion and iinprovement of Thomas Bancroft and a 
half acre with building thereon was reserved and 
deeded to Bancroft." 

Lieutenant Bancroft died in Lynn, August 19, 
1691. The inventory of his estate was filed Novem- 
ber 24, 1691, by his son Ebenezer. It shows that 
he owned land at Reading and Lynn, etc. An 
agreement for a division of the property was made 
by the widow, Elizabeth, sons Thomas, John and 
Ebenezer; Joseph Brown, husband of the daughter 
Elizabeth, and Sarah Bancroft, the youngest daugh- 
ter. The widow died May i, 1711. 

He married (first) Alice Bacon, daughter of 
Michael Bacon, of Dedham, Massachusetts, Alarch 
31, 1647-S. She died March 29, 1648. He married 
(second) Elizabeth Metcalf, daughter of Michale 
and Sarah Metcalf. She was admitted to the church 
Decetnber 14, 1651, at Dedham, and November 22, 
1669, at Reading, by letter from Dedham. The 
only child of Lieutenant Thomas and Alice was : 
Thomas, born 1648, of whom later. The children 
of Thomas and Elizabeth were : Elizabeth, born 
and died 1650; John, born February 3, 1651-2, mar- 
ried Elizabeth Bacon ; Elizabeth, born at Reading, 
December 7, 1653, married Joseph Brown; Sarah, 
born 1660, died 1661 ; Raham, born 1662, died 1683; 
Sarah, born 1665, married John Woodward; Eben- 
ezer, born 1667, married Abigail Eaton and resided 
at Lynnfield: j\Iary, born 1670. 

(II) Thomas Bancroft, son of Lieutenant 
Thomas Bancroft (l), w-as born in Dedham, T^Iassa- 
chusetts, in 1648 or 1649. He settled in Reading, 
Massachusetts, and became one of the most promi- 
nent citizens there. He was an officer in King 
Philip's war, selectman for several years. He re- 
sided in the western part of Reading where the 
old Bancroft homestead is to be seen at present. 
His was the fourth house built in the west parish ; 
it was near what is now called the Abraham Temple 
place. 

He married in 1673, Sarah Poole, daughter of 
Jonathan and Judith Poole. Their children were : 
Thomas, of whom later ; Jonathan, born and died 
1675: Sarah, born 1676, married Abraham Bryant; 
Mehitable, born 1678, married Parker; Jona- 
than, born 1681, married Sarah , died in 1702: 

Raham, born 1684 ; Judith, born 1688, married 

Parker: Samuel, born 1691, died 1692; 

Samuel born 1693 ; Elizabeth, born 1696, married 

(III) Captain Thomas Bancroft, son of Thomas 
Bancroft (2), was born in Reading. Massachusetts, 
1673. He also settled in Reading. He married 
Mary Webster. Their children were: Thomas, 
born in Reading about 1705; Benjamin, of whom 



later; Jonathan, married Mary Pierpont ; Joshua, 
married Mary Lamson, resided in Reading and 
Worcester. 

(IV) Captain Benjamin Bancroft, son of Cap- 
tain Thomas Bancroft (3), was born in Reading, 
Massachusetts, 1701 or 1702, died at Groton, July 
21, 1787. He settled first in the adjoining town of 
Charlestown and later at Groton, Massachusetts. 
He joined the church at Charlestown, November 
3, 1728. He bought his house there in 1723 of John 
Allum. He was a tanner by trade. He was cap- 
tain of militia and probably served in the colonial 
wars. He married Anna Lawrence, daughter of 
John Lawrence, of Lexington, and a descendant of 
John Lawrence, of Watertown. (See Lawrence 
pedigree with A. B. Lawrence sketch, Fitchburg, 
in this work.) The children of Captain Ben- 
jamin and Anna Bancroft were: Benjamin, Jr., 
of whom later ; Edmund, born at Charles- 
town, Massachusetts, November 2^, 1726, set- 
tled at Pepperell, formerly part of Groton ; was 
treasurer, deputy to the general court, and captain ; 
Anna, born December 20, 172S, at Groton, died 
November, 1806; Mary, born April 4, 1731, died 
December i, 1732; Joseph, born September 5, 1733, 
died November 24, 1737; Mary, born February 6, 
I73S> died November 25, 1737; Joseph, born August 

I, 1738, died November 2, 1745; Sarah, born Novem- 
ber 2, 1740, died November 2, 1745 ;• Jonathan, born 
January 27, 1743, died October 26, 1745. 

(V) Deacon Benjamin Bancroft, son of Captain 
Benjamin Bancroft (4), was born in Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, September 29, 1724, and died at 
Groton, October 27, 1804, aged eighty years. He 
followed his father's trade, a tanner, and like his 
father became captain of the militia company. In 
the revolution his son Benjamin was a soldier. He 
seems to have served also at Rutland, guarding 
British prisoners in Captain Nathaniel Harrington's 
company, Colonel Abijah Stearns's regiment, in 
1778. He was treasurer of the town and deacon 
of the church at Groton. 

He married. October 18, 1749, Alice Tarbell, of 
Groton. She died November 29, 1781. Their chil- 
dren were : Benjamin, Jr., bom August 7, 1750, 
at Charlestown or Groton; Abel, born at Groton, 
May 28, 1752; Thaddeus, born April 12. 1754: Wil- 
liam, born May 2, 1756, lieutenant in the revolution ; 
married, 1782. Agnes Edes ; Joseph, born July 3, 
1760; Samuel, of whom later; Sarah, born July 29, 
1767; John, born January 28, 1771. 

(VI ) Samuel Bancroft, son of Deacon Benja- 
min Bancroft (5), was born at Groton, Massa- 
chusetts. July 6, 1764. He settled in Groton. He 
married. May 7. 1789, Anigail Child. He was edu- 
cated in the conmion schools and learned the trade 
of stone mason, which he followed all his life. He' 
was also a farmer. His children were: Isaac, born 
November 6, 1789; Tarbell, May 19, 1792; Edmund, 
May 23, 1794; Abigail, October 23, 1796; Stowell, 
.'\pril II, 1799; George W., August ir, 1801 ; Eliza, 
July 14, 1803. 

(VII) Stowell Bancroft, son of Samuel Ban- 
croft (6), was born in Groton, Massachusetts, April 

II, 1799. He was educated in the district schools 
and learned the trade of his father, a stone mason, 
and followed it as a business during his active life. 
In politics he was an active Whig for many years. 
He resided in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and in 
Mount Vernon, New Hampshire. He married 
(first) Mary Heywood. December 3. 1822: she died 

January 3, 1825. She was born February 7, 1796, 
daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Perkins) Trow. 
He married (second) Martha D. Trow, July 3, 
1825: she died December 15. 1876. He died March 



' 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



8i 



14, 1883. Of his children one was by the first mar- 
riage and five by the second. The child of Stowell 
and Mary was : Mary Elizabeth, born December 
17. 1824. The children of Stowell and Martha Ban- 
croft were: Emily Hey wood, born July 19, 1826, 
died December 29, 1875 ; Andrew Jackson, born 
April 28. 1829; Sabrina Francis, born August 28, 
1831; William Henry Child, born August 10, 1833; 
Charles Bainbridge, born September 4, 1838, died 
June 2, 1903. 

(Vni) Andrew J. Bancroft, son of Stowell 
Bancroft (7), and Martha Dodge (Trow) 
Bancroft, was born in Dunstable, Massachu- 
setts, April 28, 1829. He removed to New 
Hampshire with his parents when he was a 
young boy and attended the district schools 
there. He settled in Mount Vernon, New Hamp- 
shire, where he engaged in the business of lumber- 
ing and farming, achieving more than ordinary 
success. In 1856 he removed to Lancaster, Massa- 
chusetts, and settled there on a farm. For the past 
few years Mr. Bancroft has led a retired life. In 
politics Mr. Bancroft is a Republican. He has 
taken a leading part in town affairs in Lancaster 
and for over thirty years has been on the board of 
assessors. He has also served the town as road 
commissioner, overseer of the poor and selectman. 
He is an active attendant of the Congregational 
church and one of its most liberal supporters. Mr. 
Bancroft inherits the executive ability and strength 
of character that have made the Bancrofts for 
many generations leaders and men of prominence. 
He has given to his fellow citizens the utmost satis- 
faction in the various positions of trust and respon- 
sibility that he has filled. 

He married, October, 1856, Mary A. Clough, 
daughter of James and Sarah (Sargent) Clough, of 
Orange, New Hampshire. Their children are : Ed- 
win E., born September 10, 1858, married Josephine 
Given, and they have three children; William L., 
born February 20. 1862, married Agnes White, and 
they have had two children : George A., born July 
I, 1865. married Edith R. Worcester: Charles G., 
born December 3, 1867. married Blanche Hight. 
and they have two children : Martha S., born 
November 2, 1871. 

WHITNEY FAMILY. John Whitney (l), the 
immigrant ancestor of Anna Henshaw Whitney, of 
Lancaster, Massachusetts, was born in England in 
1659. He settled early in Watertown, Massachusetts, 
where he was living in June, 1635. He married in 

England. Elinor , who was born in 1599 

and died at Watertown, May 11, 1659. He married 
(second) in Watertown, September 29, 1659, Judith 
Clement, who died before him. He died June I, 
1673. (Something of his ancestry and more of his 
early history will be found under the sketch of the 
Whitney family of Worcester, Massachusetts, in 
this work.) 

The children of John and Elinor Whitney were : 
Mary, baptized in England. May 23. i6ig. died 
young : John, of whom later : Richard, born in Eng- 
land, 1626, married Martha Coldam ; Nathaniel, 
born in England, 1627 ; Thomas, born in England. 
1629. married Mary Kettell : Jonathan, born in Eng- 
land. 1634, married Lydia Jones : Joshua, born in 

Watertown, July 5, 1635, married Lydia ; 

(second) Mary ; (third) Abigail Tarbell : 

Caleb, born at Watertown. July 12, 1640, buried 
July 12, 1640; Benjamin, born at Watertown, July 
6. 1643. married Jane and (second) Mary Poor. 

■(II) John Whitney, son of John Whitney (i), 
was born in England, 1620. He settled in Water- 
town. He married Ruth Reynolds, daughter of 
6 



Robert Reynolds, of Watertown, Weathcrsfichl and 
Boston. John Whitney's estate was administered 
by his widow and sons, John and Benjamin. The 
inventory dated October 26, 1692, included eighteen 
parcels of land amounting to two hundred and ten 
acres. His will was dated February 27, 1685 ; it 
was not proved. His homestall was a three-acre 
lot on the east side of Lexington street on land 
granted first to E. How, bought by him in 1643, the 
lot next south of the homestead of the Phillips 
family and probably the same lot occupied by his 
grandson, Bradshaw Whitney. He was a soldier 
in King Philip's war under Captain Hugh Mason. 
He died October 12, 1692. 

The children of John and Ruth Whitney were : 
John, born September 17, 1643, married Elizabeth 
Hinds; Ruth, born April 15, 1645, married, June 
20, 1664, John Shattuck, who was in the Squakeag 
fight September 4, 1675, and was drowned soon 
afterward at Charlestown Ferry ; Nathaniel, born 
February r, 1646, married Sarah Hagar; Samuel, 
1)orn July 26, 1648, married Mary Bemis ; Mary, 
born April 29, 1650; Joseph, born January 15. 1651, 
married Martha Beach : Sarah, born March 17, 
1653, married, October 18, 1681, Daniel Harrington: 
Elizabeth, born June 9, 1656, married, December 
19, 1678, Daniel Warren; Hannah; Benjamin, born 
June 28, 1660, married Abigail Hagar. 

(HI) John Whitney, son of John Whitney (2), 
was born in Watertown, September 17, 1643, mar- 
ried in 1669, Elizabeth Harris, who was born No- 
vember 9, 1644, daughter of Robert Harris. She 
owned the covenant in the Roxbury church March 
30, 1671. He was admitted a freeman in May, 1684. 
He was a member of the Second Church of Rox- 
bury, November 2, 1712, and doubtless had be- 
longed to the First Church there. His house lot, 
containing nine acres, was situated on Pond street, 
in that part of Roxbury called Jamaica Plain. He 
was a soldier in King Philip's war in 1676, and 
owned the covenant in the church at Roxbury in 
February, 1684. He was a tailor by trade. His 
will is dated September, 1718, and was proved 
March 13. 1726-7. He died March 4, 1726. The 
children of John and Elizabeth Whitney were : Dan- 
iel, born December 3. 1681. married Susanna Curtis; 
Timothy, born April 16, 1678, married jMargaret 
Bacon; Elizabeth, born September 9, 1670; Ruth, 
born at Roxbury, baptized August 31, 1674, mar- 
ried. April 22. 1701, Joseph Adams, iresided in' 
Brookline ; Sarah, baptized August 2, 1684, died 
July 4, 1689: John, born April i, 1672, died young. 

(IV) Daniel Whitney, eldest son of John Whit- 
ney (,3)> was born in Ro.xbury. Massachusetts, 
December 3, 1681. He lived at Roxbury. He mar- 
ried, June 21, 1704, Susanna Curtis. Their children 
were: John, born May 23, 1705. inherited land of 
his grandfather Whitney at Woodstock, Connecti- 
cut, then in Massachusetts ; Elizabeth, born Febru- 
ary 4, 1706: Susanna, born February 21, 1708; Dan- 
iel, born March 26, 1711 ; Anna, born April 30, 1713; 
Elijah, of whom later; Ruth, born December 5, 
1718; Elisha, born October 5, 1722; Esther, born 
July II, 1726, married, March 8, 174S, John White. 

(V) Elijah Whitney, son of Daniel Whitney 
(4), was born at Ro.xbury. Massachusetts. January 
15. 1715. He married Hannah . They set- 
tled in Warwick. Massachusetts, where in 1776 he 
served on the committee of safety and correspon- 
dence. Their children, born at Roxbury, were: 
Elijah, born September 23, 1744; Elisha, born Oc- 
tober 6, 1747, of whom later; John, born Novemljer 
29, 1749. married May Payson ; Hannah, born June 
13. 1756. baptized at Roxbury same year; Daniel, 
married Sarah Gay. 



82 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



(VI) Elisha Whitney, son of Elijah Whitney 
(S), was born at Roxbury, October 6, 1747. He 
married in Newton, Jilassachusetts, June 4, 17691 
Abigail Dana. He was a lieutenant in the revolu- 
tion. His picture painted by Stuart is owned by 
his grandson, Benjamin D. Whitney. He resided 
at West Roxbury. Massachusetts. The children 
of Lieutenant Elisha and Abigail Whitney were : 
Experience, born February. 1776, died September 
17. 1777: Abigail, born April 10, 1778, married, 
November 17, 1799, Joseph Sfeaver, of Boston; 
Elisha, born February 4, 1780, married Sarah Heath; 
Asa. of whom later: Pedy, born July 20. 1784, mar- 
ried in Roxbury. iSoi, Colonel Joseph Dudley, who 
was born October 16. 1780; he owned and occupied 
the old Dudley homestead in Roxbury ; he was a 
farmer strict in principles, generous with his for- 
tune; he gave a site for a townhouse in Roxbury; 
William, born June 17, 1788, died unmarried; 
Elizabeth, born March 3, 1793, died unmarried. 

(VH) Asa Whitney, son of Elisha Whitney (6), 
was born in Boston, May 18, 1782. He married at 
Pomfret, Connecticut, December 31, 1805, Mary 
Hammond, who was born December 7, 1787, and 
died 1845. He died March 4, 1826. He resided at 
Pomfret, Roxbury, Cambridge and Boston. 

The children of Asa and Mary Whitney were : 
I. Benjamin Duick, born November 6, 1807, mar- 
ried (first) Elizabeth Williams and (second) Char- 
lotte Genella. 2. Daniel H., born October 7, i8og, 
died October 6, 1817. 3. Sarah Hammond, born 
May 23, 1812, died June 23, 1817. 4, Mary, born 
March 5, 1815, married Professor Cornelius C. Fel- 
ton, of Harvard University, who was born in West 
Newbury, Massachusetts, November 6, 1807, and 
died in Chester, Pennsylvania, February 26, 1862. 
He graduated from Harvard in 1827, taught school 
two years at Geneseo, New York, was appointed 
Latin tutor at Harvard in 1829, became Greek tutor 
in 1830, college professor of Greek in 1832, and in 
1834 was chosen Eliot professor of Greek literature. 
He was for many years regent of the college ; in 
i860 he was elected president and continued in the 
office until his death. He was a member of the 
Massachusetts Board of Education and one of the 
regents of the Smithsonian Institute. He was one 
of the most profound and enthusiastic classical 
scholars in the country. He edited and translated 
a number of important works. He wrote "Greece. 
Ancient and Modern." — and other important books. 
5. Emily, born September 27, 181 7, married Dr. 
Joseph Sargent, of Worcester. (See sketch of Dr. 
Sargent and his family in this work.) 6. Asa H., 
of whom later. 7. Sarah, born July 13, 1822, mar- 
ried Frederick W. Gale, of Worcester : both lost on 
the steamer "Arctic," September 27, 1854. 8. Cath- 
erine Dean, born December 17, 1824, married. May, 
1849, Dr. Henry Sargent. (See Sargent family of 
Worcester and Leicester.) 

(VIII) Asa Hammond Whitney, sou of Asa 
Whitney (7), was born in Boston, June 17, 1819. 
He married, October 3, 1842, Laura Leffingwell 
Henshaw. who was born June 23, 1820, at Warren, 
Ohio, and died April 20, 1886. He prepared for 
college in Boston schools and was graduated at 
Harvard College in 1838. After leaving college he 
made a voyage to the Mediterranean for his health 
and subsequently went to Rio Janiero as super- 
cargo. On his return he became the junior part- 
ner of the firm of Henshaw & Whitney, wholesale 
druggists, Boston. He resided in Cambridge ; later 
he became interested in railroad liusiness and re- 
moved to Norfolk. Virginia, where he managed the 
financial affairs of the Seaboard & Roanoke Rail- 
road Company, as its treasurer. He was a man of 



great energy and earnestness of character. He re- 
sided late in life at Vicksburg, Mississippi, where 
he died October 7, 1858. 

The children of Asa Hammond and Laura Lef- 
fingwell Whitney were: i. Laura L., born June 
15, 1843, died January 24, 1870. 2. Anna Henshaw, 
of whom later. 3. Richard Sullivan, born June 19. 
1846, died August 23, 1847. 4. Catherine Dean, 
born June 17, 1849, married Robert George Lawton, 
of Hudson, New York, on the English frigate 
"Narcissus," off Havana, Cuba, May 31, 1871. He 
was born August 12. 1839, and died December 2, 
1904 : was a resident of Havana ; member of the 
banking firm of Law-ton Brothers. Their children 
were : Robert Henshaw Lawton, born in Havana. 
.■\.pril 3. 1872. died at Lancaster, Massachusetts, 
December 10, 1881 : Sydney Allen Lawton, born at 
Lancaster, November 2, 1873, graduate of Harvard 
L'niversity, 1895, now with the firm of Wrenn 
Brothers, brokers, New York city; married, June 
29, 1901, Harriet Sheldon Lawton, of Hudson, New 
York, and they reside at Rye. New York, and have 
two children — Sarah, born October 19, 1902, and 
Katharine, born October 14, 1904 : Ethel Whitney 
Lawton, born at Lancaster, October 4, 1875, married 
Chester Parker, of South Lancaster, Massachusetts, 
at New York city, October 5, 1899; resides in Lan- 
caster and they have had three children — Chester 
Parker, Jr.. born September 29, 1900; Felton Parker, 
born January 14, 1902. died March 21, 1902; and 
Lydia Parker, Ijorn November 4, 1903; Richard 
Henshaw Lawton, born in Lancaster, March 23. 
1888, resides in Rye, New York. 4. Hammond 
Moore, born at Norfolk, Virginia, June 28, 1851, 
resides in Brookline. Massachusetts: married at 
Boston, November 13. 1879, Catherine Howard 
Reed, and their children are — Catherine, born at 
Longwood, Massachusetts, September 28, 1881, mar- 
ried, September 30, 1903. Theodore W. Little, at 
Cohasset. Massachusetts ; they reside in Brookline ; 
Margaret, born at Longwood. Massachusetts, De- 
cember 28, 1886. resides at Longwood. 5. Emily 
Stark, born at Norfolk, Virginia, July 10, 1854. 
resides at Lancaster. 

(IX) Anna Henshaw Whitney, daughter of Asa 
Hammond Whitney (8), was born in Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, November 30. 1844. She attended 
school there and in Norfolk. Virginia. In 1855 
'^he was sent to a boarding school at Keene. New- 
Hampshire with her elder sister, Laura L. Whitney. 
In 1858 they entered Lasell Seminary at Auburn- 
dale, Massachusetts, graduating in i860. During 
the next two years she w-as a teacher in Lasell 
Seminary and in the year following she taught for 
a year in a private school in Worcester. In Febru- 
ary. 1864, she accepted a position as teacher in the 
academy at Lancaster, which shortly became the 
Lancaster high school. With the exception of one 
year, 1880-1, spent abroad, she continued to teach 
"there until 1888. 

Miss Whitney has served several three-year 
terms on the school committee of Lancaster, and 
is at present secretary of the board. She is also 
secretary of the board of trustees of the Public 
Library. 

Since giving up her work as teacher in the public 
schools she has taught draw-ing and painting to 
private rupils and in the public schools at times. 
Miss Whitney has an attractive home at Lancaster 
and pursues agriculture at her farm. "Few Acres," 
as one of her avocations. For many years she 
kept kennels of St. Bernards and pug dogs for 
pleasure and orofil. and has officiated as jud.ge of 
these and various other breeds at the leading bench 
shows in the L^nited States and Canada, beginning 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



83 



soon after her return troni Europe autl continuing 
to the present time. 

EZRA BURTON. The Burton family from 
which Ezra Burton, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, is 
<lescended, settled in Essex county. The progenitor 
was probably Boniface Burton, of Salem, who died 
June 13, it)69, at the age of one hundred and thir- 
teen years. He was one of the first settlers, being 
made a freeman May 6, 1635. He removed to Read- 
ing, Massachusetts, in 1644. His wife was Frances. 
The Burtons settled in New Hampshire where Mah- 
lon Burton, grandfather of Ezra Burton, was born. 
He is remembered as a man of fine physique and 
a public speaker of some distinction. He lived at 
Wilton, New Hampshire, where many of the de- 
scendants of the old Burton family are to be found 
today. In this section of southern New Hampshire 
the family has lived for hve or more generations. 
Some of them went to Vermont after the revolu- 
tion when a new state was carved out of the wil- 
derness by tlie sons of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. Among the children of Mahlon Burton 
was a son named for him, Mahlon Burton, Jr. 

Nahum Burton spent his youth on his father's 
farm. He attended school at Wilton and became a 
farmer. He too went to Vermont and settled at 
Weston, where he lived and died. He was a Whig 
and like most of the pioneers extremely patriotic. 
He married (first) Charlotte Pettingill. After her 
death he married her sister, Lucinda Pettingill. 
Their father was in the revolutionary war at the 
battle of Bunker Hill, and died in Weston, New 
Hampshire, May 16, 1859. She was born in New 
Hampshire. She was a woman of exceptional beauty 
of character. Among her children was a son, Ezra, 
who was born at Weston, March 6, 1827. 

Ezra Burton lived the typical life of a Vermont 
farmer's son in the early part of the nineteenth cen- 
tury. He remembers the introduction of the steam 
railroads and the gradual extinction of the stage 
coach and other former methods of transportation. 
He saw the industrial birth of the new era in 
America. He attended such schools as were within 
his reach at his Vermont home. There were eight 
children and each in turn had to do his share in 
helping run the farm. The pioneers who went to 
Vermont saw their cliildren and grandchildren drift 
away. In this family Ezra was the fourth son to 
leave the old homestead and start life in Boston. 
The brothers were in the trucking business and at 
first he worked for them. At length he went into 
the business of brush making with one of his broth- 
ers, and he followed this business until he retired. 
For thirty years he was salesman of the firm and 
spent much of his time travelling in the United 
States. He began when there were few railroads, 
when the stage covered more ground than the 
steam cars. He was successful in building up a 
large business, and the firm established a reputation 
second to none for their product. He moved to 
Lancaster. Massachusetts, in 1868, and since then 
occupied the residence in which he now resides. He 
still retains an interest in the brush factory, although 
he retired from active business in 1895. He is a 
Republican in politics. He attends, the Unitarian 
church at Lancaster. 

He married, April 7, 1863. Sarah Elizabeth 
Brace, daughter of Thomas Brace, of Salem, Massa- 
chusetts. Thomas Brace was a sea captain of a ves- 
sel in trade with China. Their children were : 
Linda, died voung; Edward O. ; Jilaude E., married 
David Hinckley; Ruth O. 

SUMNER FAMILY. From the best obtainable 
evidence it is believed that Roger Sumner, of Bi- 



cester, Oxford county, England, died December, 
1608, and buried in St. Edbury churchyard, was the 
progenitor of the Sumner family in America, at 
least the New England and especially the Worcester 
county branches. He married Joan Franklin, No- 
vember 2, 1601, and by this union one son was born, 
William (i), who became the American ancestor. 
William was baptized at Bicester church, Oxford 
county, England, January 2, 1602, and in 1625 mar- 
ried Mary West, and by her had two sons, born in 
England : Roger, baptized August, 1632, and George, 
baptized March, 1633. The family then emigrated 
to New England, settling at Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts, about 1635, and from this family, it is be- 
lieved, have sprung all the New England Sumners, 
including Governor Increase, Gen. W. H. Sum- 
ner, and our great statesman, Hon. Charles Sumner, 
of congressional fame. 

(II) William Sumner, son of William (i) and 
Mary, was probably born in Massachusetts. He 
married Elizabeth Clement, daughter of Augustine 
Clement, of Dorchester. He was a mariner. 

(II) Roger Sumner, born in England, son of 
William (l), married the daughter of Thomas 
Joslin, an early settler at Hingham. Roger was 
admitted to the church at Dorchester, 1656, but 
moved to Lancaster and there remained until that 
town was destroyed by the Indians, when he moved 
to Milton, Massachusetts, where he was deacon of 
the first church. His children were: Abigail, Sam- 
uel and Ebenezer. Another son, William, was the 
father of Seth Sumner, and he the father of Job 
Sumner, who had a son Job, born at Milton, Janu- 
ary 20, 1776, and changed his name to Charles 
Pinckney. The last named was high sheriff of Suf- 
folk county, Massachusetts, and married Relief 
Jacobs, by whom he had children, including Hon. 
Charles Sumner, born at Boston, January 6, 181 1, 
who became the great and eloquent American anti- 
slavery statesman, and who was brutally assaulted 
in his seat in congress by Brooks, a pro-slavery 
member. 

(II) George Sumner, son of William (i), was 
born in England, February 14, 1634; made a free- 
man, 1637; married Mary Baker. He lived on 
Brush hill, Milton, and was deacon of the church 
there. His children were. Mary, George, Samuel, 
William, Ebenezer, Edward, Joseph, Benjamin. 

(III) George Sumner, son of George (2) and 
Mary (Baker) Sumner, married Ann Tucker, of 
Roxbury. Their children were : Samuel, born No- 
vember 13, 1695, died February 8, 1782; George; 
Ann ; Mary ; William ; Susanna ; Elizabeth ; Josiah ; 
Abigail. 

(IV) Samuel Sumner, son of George (3), and 
Ann (Tucker) Sumner married Elizabeth Griffin, 
daughter of Joseph Griffin, of Roxbury. Tliey set- 
tled at Pomfret. Elizabeth was born February 2, 
i/oo, and died November 13, 1772. She was esteemed 
a woman of exemplary piety. Their children were : 
.\nn ; Samuel ; Elizabeth ; George ; Joseph, born 
January 19, 1740, died December 9, 1824; Sarah. 

(V) Joseph Sumner, son of Samuel (4), and 
Elizabeth (Griffin) Sumner, was born July 19, 1740, 
at Pomfret, Connecticut. He became a member of 
Yale College, and from that institution received high 
honors. He early devoted his life to the ministry, 
and in June, 1762, when twenty-three years of age, 
commenced preaching. During all the trials and 
conflicts of his life he was noted for cheerfulness, 
and other social graces. Not easily provoked, he 
knew what was due to his character and he secured 
respect from all. Soon after he commenced preach- 
ing, says Aaron Bancroft, D. D. (father of the his- 
torian, George Bancroft) in a tribute-sermon on Mr. 
Sumner : "In the contest between the parent coun- 



84 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



try and the American provinces, he proved himself 
an efficient patriot, and dnring the Revokitionary 
struggle he suffered the inconveniences and priva- 
tions to which men of his profession were exposed 
from the state of public affairs, and all these trials 
he bore with patience and equanimity. His consti- 
tution was vigorous ; through all his life he was 
blessed with good health. During the period of 
sixty-two years he was never absent from the stated 
communion of his church, and till bodily infirmity 
rendered him unable to officiate, the public exer- 
cises of the Sabbath in this place were suspended 
only seven times, on account of his indisposition, or 
his journeyings. His method of preaching was 
evangelistic; he dwelt not on controversy, but, well 
instructed in the essential truths of revelation, kept 
back nothing profitable to his people. An advocate 
for Christian liberty, and supporting the Protestant 
l)rinciples of the sufficiency of Scripture as the rule 
of faith and practice, he endeavored to secure the 
harmony of the church by inspiring Christian breth- 
ren with unity of spirit, and binding them together 
in the bond of peace." As an illustration of his 
broad, liberal views, it is related that at a meeting 
of the Worcester Association of Ministers, as was 
usual. Dr. Bancroft applied for admission to mem- 
bership. Opposition was made by some of the 
members, and the subject was put over to the next 
meeting, and at that time a majority appeared 
against Dr. Bancroft's admission. On this result, 
Dr. Sumner of Shrewsbury, and Mr. Avery of 
Holden, arose and declared that they would not 
belong to a body which passed so illiberal a vote 
as that rejecting Dr. Bancroft, and that the Asso- 
ciation might meet when and wliere they would, 
but they would no longer be considered members 
of it. In consequence of this withdrawal the Asso- 
ciation was broken up. Dr. Sumner, of whom this 
memoir is written, married Lucy Williams, of Pom- 
fret, Connecticut, June 8, 1763. Their children were : 
Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Joanna, Lucy, Elizabeth 
Dorothy, Erastus. 

(V) Increase Sumner, governer of !Massachu- 
setts, son of Increase (4), was born in Norfolk 
county, Massachusetts November 27, 1746. The first 
rudiments of his education w-ere taught him by 
Judge William Cushing, of the supreme judicial 
court, who was preceptor of the public grannnar 
school in Roxbury in 1752. His father believed that 
the life of an honest, hard-working farmer was the 
best for his son, but afterward many importuned 
him to educate his son and namesake to fill higher 
places of public trust. All obstacles having been 
surmounted, he entered college in 1763 and grad- 
uated 1767. He spent the next two years in teach- 
ing at Roxbury. He studied law under barrister 
Samuel Quincy, and was admitted to the bar in 
1770, opening his office at Roxbury, in the house in 
which his mother continued to reside until her death. 
In 1776, a period of great difficulty, Mr. Sumner 
was chosen a member of the general court, serving 
until 1780. and was then elected senator from Suf- 
folk county. Massachusetts. 

It was September ,30, 1779, when he formed a 
connection of much importance in every well- 
rounded man's career, by his marriage with Eliza 
beth Hyslop, of Boston, a lady of rare intelligence, 
and remarkable for her amiable disposition. During 
the same year he was chosen a member of the con- 
vention for forming a state constitution. In June, 
1782, he was chosen a memljer of congress by the 
Massachusetts legislature, in place of Timothy Dan- 
ielson. who resigned ; but Sumner never took his seat 
in that body. August of the same year he was made 
associate justice of the supreme judicial court. In 



1797 he was elected governor, and was re-elected, 
and his able, firm and patriotic administration won 
for him a lasting place in the great heart of the 
commonwealth. In 1799 he was made governor by 
an almost unanimous vote. Out of three hundred 
and ninety-three towns in the state, including the 
"District of Maine," one hundred and eighty were 
unanimous for Sumner. But at the commencement 
of the political year he was bedridden, and June 7, 
1799. in his fifty-third year, his career ended. "No 
death,' says one biographical writer of that day, 
"except Washington's (which took place six months 
later) was ever more deeply deplored in Massachu- 
setts." Personally, it should here be added of Gov- 
ernor Sumner, that he was a devoted son, a loving 
and attentive husband, a kind and affectionate 
father and friend. The purity of his morals was 
never once questioned. He was a practical farmer 
and enjoyed the cultivation of the soil. He was a 
lover and owner of fine horses. In horticulture, he 
found great delight, and with his own hands grafted 
his whole orchard. In early life he made a public 
profession of Christianity, becoming a member of 
the Congregational Society and church. The only 
child of Governor Increase Sumner and his wife 
Elizabeth Hyslop was William Hyslop, born July 
4, 1780. 

(VI) William Hyslop, only son of Governor 
Increase Sumner (5), was born, "on the night of 
July 4, 1780." He graduated from Harvard College, 
1799; was aide-de-camp to Governors Strong and 
Brooks, to the former 1810-16, and to the latter 
1816-48, when he was appointed adjutant-general by 
Governor Brooks. He held that position under 
Brooks, Enstis, Lincoln and Davis, till 1834, when 
he resigned. For eleven years from 1808 he was 
one of the representatives of Boston. September 10. 
1814, he was appointed by Governor Strong executive 
agent to repair to "the District of Maine (then in- 
vaded by the enemy) and promptly provide every 
practicable means for defense of that part of the 
state." In December, 1814, he was appointed by the 
Board of War to borrow money of the banks and pay 
off the troops which had been called out in Maine. 
In 1816 he was agent with Hon. James Lloyd to 
present the Massachusetts militia claim to the United 
States government for its services. In November. 
1826. he was appointed by the secretary of war, a 
member of the board of army and militia officers of 
which Major General Scott was president, to re- 
port a plan for the organization of the militia and 
a system of cavalry tactics. He first married Mary 
Ann Perry, October 4, 1826. She was the widow 
of Raymond H, Perry, brother of Commodore O. H. 
Perry. Mr. Sumner died July 14, 1834. 

(VI) Samuel Sumner, son of Joseph (5). and 
Lucy (Williams) Sumner, was born at Shrewsbury, 
September 24, 1765. He was graduated at Dart- 
mouth College. 1776, and appointed English pre- 
ceptor of the Leicester Academy, July, 1788. After 
leaving Leicester he studied theology with his 
father, and was ordained over the church and society 
at Southboro, June. 1791. In 1797 he was dismissed 
by letter to St. Albans. Vermont. He next moved 
to Bakersfield, Vermont, and became pastor. The 
peculiar circumstances under which he was ordained 
are thus given : "The region of the country about 
Bakersfield was. in the beginning of the last cen- 
tury, an almost unbroken wilderness. Indeed, it is 
said Mr. Sumner's first approach to its wild do- 
main was by a path designated by blazed trees. As 
the place was so difficult to cross. Dr. Sumner ar- 
ranged that the ceremonies of installation should be 
held in his own church in Shrewsbury, where they 
were performed after the approved orthodox man- 




"J B L I C 




WORCESTER COUNTY 



85 



ncr. the only peculiarity being the absence of the 
minister installed.'' He afterward removed to Troy, 
\'ermont. where lie died at the home of his son, in 
1837, aged seventy-two years. He is said to have 
often expressed liiniself. that in selecting the pnlpit 
for his sphere of duty, he mistook his calling. 

(,VI) Sarah Sumner, eldest daughter of Joseph 
(5), and Lucy (Williams) Sumner, married William 
Jennison, of Worcester, in 1788. 

(VI) Joanna Sumner, second daughter of Jo- 
seph (5) and Lucy Sumner, married, September 6, 
1806, Edward Sumner, of Roxbury. He was a 
cousin of Governor Increase Sumner. 

(VI) Lucy Sumner, third daughter of Joseph 
(S) and Lucy Sumner, born at Shrewsbury, Decem- 
ber 2, 1771, married Joseph Wheeler, of Worcester, 
January 13, 1793. In 1803 they moved to Dixl'ield, 
Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, and known as 
"the District of Maine." Dixlield was then known 
as "Township No. I, on Androscoggon River, Dis- 
trict of Maine," and letters were so addressed to 'Sir. 
Wheeler. 

(VI) Erastus Sumner, youngest child of Joseph 
(5) and Lucy (Williams) Sumner, born February 
10, 1783, married Lavinia Boyd, of Marlboro, July 
12, 1805. Their children were : L. Caroline, born 
January 7, 1807. 2. Lucy, born August 14, 1809. 
3. Lydia Ann. born November 8, 1814. 5. Jane 
Augusta, born November 18, 1817. 6. George, born 
March 22, iSig; died September 19, 1821. 7. Cath- 
erine Whipple, born July 8, 1822. 8. George, born 
July 25, 1824; died 1893. 

(VII) George Sumner, son of Erastus (6) and 
Lavinia (Boyd) Sumner, was born July 25, 1824, 
and died 1893. He was the grandson of Rev. Dr. 
Joseph Sumner. His first entrance into mercantile 
life was at the age of fifteen years, in the store of 
Bigelow & Goodnow, in the "Old Tavern House," 
in Shrewsbury. After two years of training there he 
came to Worcester as a clerk for Henry H. Cham- 
berlain, founder of the house of Barnard. Sumner 
& Putnam Co. His ability rapidly advanced him until 
he was made a partner in the growing business and 
continued at its head throughout his life, and his son 
Edward P. is still an active partner in the concern. 
Before his marriage he made his home with Allen 
Rice, and was thrown into the company of men who 
have left footprints on the business and social ways 
of Worcester, including the "Sixteen Associates," a 
society of social and literary character. He was an 
active member of the Worcester City Guards, as well 
as of the old State Guards in time of the civil war. 
In the financial circles of the city his judgment was 
often appealed to. He became a director in the Wor- 
cester Safe Deposit and Trust Company, and vice- 
president of the Five Cents Savings Bank. He was 
a regular attendant of the Church of L'nity. He had 
no taste for political preferment, but had deep con- 
cern for the business welfare of the city. He was 
a liberal contributor to the Library and Museums of 
the Worcester Society of Antiquity. In 1888 he 
published a work entitled "Memorials of the Rev. 
Joseph Sumner. D. D., Minister of Shrewsbury, 
1762-1824." The man who could say "George Sum- 

'ner is my friend" had a friend indeed. He was a 
lover of the beautiful in both art and nature, but 
no painter himself. 

One of the rules of the society of "Associates," 
all being single men at the time, was "He who mar- 
ries first shall provide a supper for the Club." Mr. 
Sumner married, in 1854, Sarah E. Richardson, 
daughter of Charles and Mary Richardson, of Man- 
chester, New Hampshire, and he carried out the 
obligation taken under the above named club rule, 
in a royal manner. To Mr. and Mrs. George Sum- 



ner were born: i. George R., born May 30, 1861; 
married Louisa Ford, of Portland, Maine ; had one 
child, George Sumner. 2. Mary Locke, born Feb- 
ruary 5, 1863 ; married William D. Sewall, of Bath, 
Maine; had four children — Arthur, Margaret, 
Dorothy and Sunmer. 3. Edward Prentiss, born Jan- 
uary 18, 1866; married Pertha Perry, of Worcester; 
liad two children, Catherine and Frances. 4. Caro- 
line Allen, born April 12, 1867; married Albert G. 
Liscomb, of Worcester. 

REV. GEORGE MURILLO BARTOL. John 
Bartol (i), who lived and died in Crewkerne, Som- 
ersetshire, England, was the father of the immigrant 
ancestor of the Bartol family of America, to which 
Rev. George Murillo Bartol, of Lancaster, belongs. 
He was a glover by trade. He married at Crew- 
kerne, March 17, 1598, Agnes Williams. Among 
their children was John Bartol, of whom later. John 
Bartol, Sr., died at Crewkerne and was buried there 
I^cbruary 20, 1639-40. 

(II) John Bartol, son of John Bartol (r), was 
born at Crewkerne, and baptized there April 26, 

1601. He married Parnell . His father died 

probably soon after he left England and he inherited 
the estate in England, which Thomas Letchford, a 
Boston attorney, conveyed to Henry Hazzard, of 
Bristol, England, mariner, consisting of house and 
garden at Crewkerne, July 25, 1641. He was plaintiff 
in a civil suit in 1640 and" again in 1644. He lived at 
Salem a short time before settling in Marblehead. 
He was selectman of the latter town in 1649-56-57- 
58-64. He was called a planter in the records, but 
was probably also a mariner. He was found drowned 
and the inquest was held October i. 1664. His estate 
was administered in the Essex county court. Novem- 
ber 29. 1664. Many of his descendants have lived 
in Marblehead. The children of John and Parnell 
Bartol were : William, born 1629 (aged thirty-two in 
1662, another record) ; John, Jr., born 1631. aged 
forty-two in 1673. Mary, born at Marblehead, Feb- 
ruary I, 1642. Probablv others died young. 

(III) William Bartol, son of John. Bartol (2), 
was born in England in 1629. He died in 1690, leav- 
ing five sons and three daughters. 

(IV) Robert Bartol. son of William Bartol (3), 
was born in Marblehead. Massachusetts, about 
1660, married, March 16, 1681, Sarah Beckett. He 
died in 1708.. They had four children. 

(V) William Bartol, son of Robert Bartol (4), 
was born in Marblehead in 1691. He married. May 
4, 1718, Mary Felt. (One of this name was born at 
Casco Bay, "October 12, 1687.) They had four 
children. 

(VI) George Bartol. youngest son of William 
Bartol (5), was born in 1721, died at Freeport, 
Maine, in 1788. He settled there and his children 
were born there and his grandchildren to the num- 
ber of thirty-one. He died there and was buried 
with his wife and children in the old burying ground 
on the hill that overlooks the town and Casco Bay. 
He died January 21. 1788. Mrs. Hannah Bartol died 
April 4, 1784, aged sixty-five years. He married 
(second) Hannah Allen, at Falmouth (now Maine), 
April 17, 1746. Their children were: William, born 
1747, died 1843; married Elizabeth Grant, who was 
born in 1749 and died 1S33 ; George, of whom 
later: John, baptized July 21. i'734, married Mary 
Carter; Samuel, born 1753. died 1786; married Mary 
Soide. The children of the first marriage were : 
Mary, baptized May 25. 1746, married Wins- 
low [ Deborah, baptized May 29, 1743, died young; 
Deborah, baptized June 10, 1750. 

(VII) John Bartol, son of George Bartol (6), 
was born in North Yarmouth, Maine, July, 1734. 



86 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



He bought a place of his father containing fifty acres 
at Havaseeket. He married Mary Carter. Their 
children were : John, born 1779, died 1805 ; Daniel, 
born 1781, married Mary Lowe; Solomon, born 
1782; Desire, born 1784, died 1806; Jacob, born 
1786, died 1804; Dorcas, born 1788; Ephraim, born 

1791 ; Reuben, born 1793, married Chase, 

and had Reuben and Joseph; Ammi, born 1795; 
Miriam, born 1797, died 1809; Alfred, born 1801, 

married —  Coffin and had Ansyl, Melinda, 

George, John and Martha ; George, born 1803. 

(VII) William Bartol, another son of George 
Bartol (6), was born 1747, and died 1843. He mar- 
ried Elizabeth Grant, who was born in 1749 and died 
in 1833. Their children were : David, of whom 

later; Hannah; Elizabeth, married Trott; 

Susan, married Trott ; Sarah ; Esther, mar- 
ried Douglass ; Samuel, married Sarah 

Weston, and had Samuel and Sarah Trott ; Lucretia, 

married Denison ; Jane, married 

Stetson. 

(VII) George Bartol, son of George Bartol (6) 
and brother of the two preceding, was born about 
1750 and died 1796. He married, January 12, 1775, 
Jane Soule, daughter of Barnabas Soule, of Free- 
port. She was born 1756 and died January 24, 1833. 
Her second husband was Captain James Bacon. Her 
ancester, George Soule, came over on the "May- 
flower" on the first voyage. He married about 1623 
Mary Beckett, who came to Plymouth in 1621. They 
settled at Duxbury and had eight children. Their 
son, John Soule, born 1632, died 1707, married 
Hester Dewsbury, born 1638, died 1738, and they 
had nine children. Their fifth son, Moses Soule, 
died in 1751, leaving nine children. The third son 
of Moses was Barnabas Soule, born 1705, died 1780; 
married Jane Bradbury. She was born 1718, and 
Jane who married George Bartol (VII) was one of 
her nine children. 

The children of George and Jane (Soule) Bartol 
were: Solomon, born 1775, died September 2^^, 
1781 ; Barnabas, born 1777, of whom later; George, 
of whom later, ancestor of Rev. George Bartol ; 

Jane, born 1781, married Fields; Phebe, 

born 1784, died 1876; married (first) Veazie ; 

(second) Soule; Sarah, born 1787, mar- 
ried Latchfield; Patience, born 1789, died 



1871 ; married 



Lufkin ; Samuel, born 1791, 



died 1817; married Mary Chandler; Elizabeth, born 
1793, married Staples; Polly, born 1796-8. 

(VIII) David Bartol, son of William Bartol 
(7), was born 1781 and died 1849. His children 

were: Sarah, married Trott; Benjamin, 

born 1810, married Blanchard ; George, 

born 1812, married Betty Mitchell; William, born 

1814, died 1842; Jane, born 1816, married 

Merrill; Elizabeth, born 1821, died 1840; Mary, 
born 1824. 

(VIII) George Bartol, son of George Bartol 
(7), was born August 8, 1779, and died April 6, 
1855. He is the father of Rev. George M. Bartol 
and also the late Rev. Dr. Cyrus A. Bartol. Like 
his father, he was a merchant. He kept the leading 
general store at Frceport, Maine, for many years. 

He married Ann Given, March 27, 1809. Her 
father was a soldier in the revolution. The children 
of George and Ann Bartol were: Samuel Veazie, 
born December 29, 1809, died February, 1810; 
Horace Veazie, born April 23, 1811, died January 
6, 1881 ; Cvrus A. (Rev. Dr.), born April 30, 1813, 
married, February 7, 1838, Elizabeth Howard, died 
December 16, 1900, leaving one child. Elizabeth 
Howard, born January 14, 1842 ; Samuel Lewis, born 
July 23, 1817, died September, 1818; George Mu- 



rillo, of whom later; Mary, born December 12, 
1822, died June 21, 1902. 

(IX) Rev. George Murillo Bartol, son of George 
Bartol (8), was born in Freeport, Maine, September 
18, 1820. He attended the public schools of Port- 
land, where the family lived during his youth. He 
prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Exeter, 
New Hampshire. He was graduated in regular 
course from Brown University, Providence, in 1842. 
He studied for the ministry in the Harvard Divinity 
School at Cambridge, from which he was grad- 
uated in 1845. He began immediately to preach. 
He occupied the pulpit of the First Unitarian Church 
of Chicago for several months. He prt ached for 
some time in various other towns. 

His first accepted call was to Lancaster to the 
pastorate that for nigh sixty years he filled with 
ability and success. Under date of June 19. 1847, 
he wrote in reply to the call of the Society at Lan- 
caster : "I have given to the proposal of the Uni- 
tarian Society in Lancaster, by you, their committee, 
my most serious consideration. I beg that you will 
not deem me wanting in a proper sensibility to this 
mark of confidence and esteem on the part of those 
you represent. I return my warmest thanks for the 
invitation and for the flattering terms with which 
it was accompanied. I am happy to accept it and 
hereby very respectfully do so. With fervent , 
prayers that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy 
Spirit may be with you all, I remain, my brethren, in 
the truth and affection of the Gospel, ever your 
friend and servant." 

The committee in charge consisted of John M. 
Washburn, Ezra Sawyer and Luke Bigelow. Twenty 
churches were represented at the ordination, August 
4, 1847. The council met in Lancaster House and 
organized with Rev. Joseph Allen, of Northboro, 
moderator and Rev. T. P. Allen, of Sterling, scribe. 
When the certificates as to Mr. Bartol's education 
and Christian standing were read. Rev. Edward 
Everett Hale, then pastor of the Church of the Unity 
at Worcester, made the formal motion "that we are 
satisfied with the above testimonials and that we are 
ready to proceed with the ordination." Among the 
clergymen who took part that day Dr. Hale and 
Mr. Bartol alone survive. The sermon was preached 
by Rev. Cyrus A. Bartol, brother of the candidate. 
The Scriptures were read by Dr. Hale. The others 
who took part in the service were : Rev. Joseph 
,'\llen, Rev. C. T. Thayer, of Beverly; Rev. Alonzo 
Hill, of Worcester; Rev. Mr. Frothingham, of 
Salem. 

Mr. Bartol came to what his friend Rev. Mr. 
Marvin called a "wealthy and respectable" congre- 
gation and the passing years have surely enhanced 
both those qualities. The history of the First Church 
of Christ of Lancaster dates to 1653 when the min- 
istry of Rev. Joseph Rowlandson began. His pas- 
torate was terminated by the destruction of the 
town by the Indians in King Philip's war, 1675. 
Rev. John Whiting, who was minister from 1690 
to 1697, met his death at the hands of hostile In- 
dians, and his successor, who was pastor from 1701 
to 1704, met a similar fate. Rev. John Prentice be- 
gan to preach in 1705 and died in 1748, the year 
he was succeeded by Rev. Timothy Harrington, 
whose ministrv continued until 1795. Rev. Nathaniel 
Thayer was his colleague about two years and his 
successor as minister. His remarkable record as 
minister, lasting until the summer of 1840, is told 
in a sketch of his life elsewhere in this work. The 
next pastor and predecessor of Mr. Bartol was 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



8 



/ 



Rev. Edniimd H. Sears, who was installed December 
23, 1840, but was obliged to resign on account of 
ill health, and his work in the parish ended April 
T, 1847. 

The present church edifice was erected in 1816. 
The architect w'as Charles Bulfinch, who is known 
the world over as the designer of the Massachusetts 
State House and of the Capitol at Washington. Rev. 
A. P. Marvin, who was for some years the orthodox 
minister at Lancaster, wrote of -Mr. Bartol many years 
ago : "The present pastor, living in times of change, 
has seen, with rare exceptions, every pulpit, of every 
denomination, in the region round, occupied by suc- 
cessive ministers, whose power for usefulness has 
been, in many cases, weakened by the fickleness of 
the people. The record is honorable to the church, 
and to the parish and the town with which it has 
been connected, during nearly seven generations of 
men. The church was in connection with the town 
as a parish from 1653 till the Second Parish was 
formed, when the church and the First Precinct 
were united. When Sterling became a town, Lan- 
caster resumed its parochial functions, which con- 
tinued till near the close of the ministry of Dr. 
Thayer." 

At the close of twenty-five years, August 4, 
1872, the anniversary of his pastorate, a reception 
was given Mr. Bartol and his wife in the town 
hall and was largely attended not only by his own 
parishioners but by all his townspeople and many 
from neighboring towns and the distance. Among 
the speakers were Rev. A. P. Marvin, the pastor of 
the Evangelical Church ; Rev. E. H. Sears, the 
predecessor of Mr. Bartol ; the venerable Rev. B. 
Whittemore and Mr. Bartol himself. An even more 
elaborate celebration of his fortieth anniversary was 
held August 4, 1887. When Mr. Bartol completed 
his fiftieth year he was given such an ovation and 
greeting by the people of his parish, town and of 
the whole denomination as few men ever live to 
receive. As Dr. Hale said, and Dr. Hale was one of 
the central figures of the celebration because he 
himself was one of the ministers in charge of Mr. 
Bartol's ordination fifty years before, "there were 
more hydrangeas in the church today than there 
were in the whole state of Massachusetts fifty years 
ago." Mr. and Mrs. Bartol were given a most de- 
lightful and hearty reception in the Thayer Memorial 
Chape! after the more formal services in the church. 
Dr. Edward A. Horton was one of the speakers. 
Among the gifts lavished upon the good minister 
that day were a silver loving cup from past and 
present members of the Worcester Ministerial Asso- 
ciation, of which he was a veteran member, and a 
magnificent silver service, suitably engraved, from 
his parish. A poem for the occasion was written 
by Mrs. Julia A. Carney, of Galesburg, Illinois. On 
this occasion the Springfield Rcf'ublican said : "While 
extremely liberal in his religious views, Dr. Bartol's 
singularly cordial and sincere nature has won the 
loving regard of the ministers of all other denomina- 
tions. The old Unitarian Church designed by 
Charles Bulfinch is one of the landmarks of Wor- 
cester county. People of all denominations filled it 
in Dr. Bartol's honor." 

Of Mr. Bartol's service to the public Mr. Henry 
S. Nourse, the historian, said: "His power for good 
has not been limited by parish confines, nor re- 
stricted to the stated religious teachings of his order. 
The clergy in Lancaster had ever been held the 
proper supervisors of the schools, and upon his com- 
ing Mr. Bartol was at once placed in the school 
board and was annually re-chosen, until, having 
given faithful service, usually as chairman of the 



board, during twenty-one years, he felt constrained 
to ask relief from this onerous duty. 

"From the establishment of the public library, he 
has always stood at the head of the town's commit- 
tee, entrusted with its management, and in its incep- 
tion and increase, his refined taste, rare knowledge 
of books and sound literary judgment have been 
invaluable. With talent and scholarship that in- 
vited him to a much wider field of service, he has 
clung lovingly to his quiet country parish, making 
it the centre of his efforts and aspirations. He is 
an enthusiastic lover of nature in all her moods, a 
discriminating admirer of beauty in art, earnest in 
his soul convictions, although averse to sectarian con- 
troversy — and so tender of heart as to seem char- 
itable to all human weakness, save that he is intol- 
erant of intolerance." 

It was Mr. Bartol who expressed the unanimous 
sentiments of the people of Lancaster by the follow- 
ing resolution adopted at a legal town meeting May 
20, 1865: "Whereas, on the fifteenth day of April, 
1865, Abraham Lincoln, the venerated and beloved 
president of the United States, was by an assassin, 
suddenly assaulted and slain, the blow by which he 
fell being aimed not only at his life, but through 
him at the life of the nation. 

"Resolved, that in recording our tribute to the 
memory of the late president with profound sorrow 
for his loss, we do all beyond all party pre-posses- 
sions, own and bless in him an unselfishness in dis- 
position and singleness of purpose, a gentleness, 
humanity and benevolence under great provocation, 
with an honesty of intention, an ardent patriotism, a 
fidelity to duty, and a growing mastery of the cir- 
cumstances of his position, which enabled him with 
the blessing of God, to fulfill and bring to a success- 
ful completion, a work almost unprecedented for dif- 
ficulty ; that in his removal at the moment in which 
his labors were being crowned with the triumph of 
national authority and the evident approach of the 
blessings of peace, we see the completion of a career 
which the nation will ever look back to with thank- 
fulness, and hold in tender and afifectionatc remem- 
brance." 

One of the most interesting homes in a town 
where all the homes are interesting and some re- 
markable for artistic and beautiful features, is the 
low, quaint, rambling structure in which Mr. Bartol 
lives. It stands back modestly from the highway, 
shielded by trees and shrubbery, with ample 
grounds where the flowers seem to delight in adding 
to the decorations of a fascinating place. Inside the 
house there are treasures of art and literature, birds 
and flowers. 

Mr. Bartol is a Republican in politics. He 
belongs to few organizations outside the church. 
He has been since graduation a member of the 
scholars' fraternity, the Phi Beta Kappa. He re- 
ceived the degree of D. D. from his alma mater 
(Brown University) in 1892. 

He married, June, 1856, Elizabeth Washburn, the 
daughter of John M. Washburn, of Lancaster. Their 
children are : George, born May 16, 1857, married, 
January 12, 1898, Nellie Holt, and they have two 
children: Eleanor, born October 31, 1901, Elizabeth, 
born November 7, 1902 ; Anna, born May 5, 1859, 
died at Manchester, Massachusetts, August, 1880; 
Elizabeth Washburn, born April 10, 1861, married, 
July 29, 1884, Harold Parker, and they have three 
children — Bartol Parker, born June 7, 1885, Eliza- 
beth Parker, born September, 1886, Cornelia Conway 
Parker, born May 21, 1894. (See sketch of Parker 
family of Lancaster.) Dr. John Washburn, born 
January 10, 1864, graduate of Harvard College, 



88 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



1887, married, October 2, 1900, Charlotte Hemenvvay 
Cabot, and they have three children : Janet, born 
July 13, 1902, Dorothy, born December 15, 1903, 
Ann, born December 21, 1905 ; Mary Washburn, 
born August 2, 1867, resides at home with her par- 
ents ; Dr. Edward Francis Washburn, born in Man- 
chester, September 5, 1874, graduate of Harvard, 
1896. 

CHARLES AUGUSTUS CHASE. William 
Chase (i), from whom Charles Augustus Chase, of 
Worcester, is directly descended, came from Eng- 
land with Winthrop in 1630. The surname Chase 
is undoubtedly derived from the French Chasser 
(to hunt). The ancestral seat in England was at 
Chesham in Rockinghamshire, through which runs 
a rapidly flowing brook or river, the Chess. 

Thomas Chase and Aquila Chase, who settled 
at Hampton, New Hampshire, in 1639, were broth- 
ers, and were perhaps cousins of William Chase, the 
first comer. The record of Rev. John Eliot, the 
Indian Apostle, of "such as adjoyned themselves to 
this church," the First Church of Roxbury. has this 
entry : "William Chase, he came with the first com- 
pany, bringing with him his wife Mary and his son 
William." The maiden name of his wife is not 
known. The son William was about seven years 
old at the time of migration. The father applied 
for admission as a freeman, October 19, 1630. He 
was a town officer at Roxbury. He served against 
the Narragansetts in 1645. He removed to Yar- 
mouth, Massachusetts, in 1638, and died there. His 
will, dated May 4, 1659, states that he was aged. 
It was proved May 13, 1659, hence his death occurred 
in May of that year. He bequeathed to his wife 
Mary and two sons, Benjamin and William (see N. 
E. Hist. Reg. V. 388). His daughter Mary was 
buried at Barnstable, Massachusetts, October 28, 
1652. The early records of the town of Yarmouth 
were destroyed by fire, so that it is impossible to 
give the dates of birth and death of all the children. 

(H) William Chase, son of William Chase (l), 
was born in England about 1623, if he was seven 
at the time of the migration. He removed with his 
father's family to Yarmouth in 1638. He died there 
in 1685. It is impossible to give the name of his 
wife or the dates of birth of his children; it is 
known, however, that he had eight children, of 
whom William was the eldest. 

(III) William Chase, eldest son of William Chase 
(2), was born in Duxbury, Massachusetts. He mar- 
ried for his first wife Hannah Sherman, of the stock 
to which Roger Sherman and General W. T. Sher- 
man belonged. His second wife was Priscilla Perry. 
By the first marriage he had five children, of whom 
the third was Isaac. 

(IV) Isaac Chase, third child of William Chase 
(3), married (first), February 10, 1704. Elizabeth 
Blethen, of Salem, by whom he had five children; 
married (second) Mary Fowler, by whom he had 
seven. 

(V) Isaac Chase, third son of Isaac Qiase (4). 
married, November 13, 1729, Amy Anthony; mar- 
ried (second) Elizabeth , who survived 

him. Isaac and Amy Chase had eight children, of 
whom the eldest was Anthony Chase. 

(VI) Anthony Chase, son of Isaac Chase (5), was 
born at Swanzey, Massachustts, February 21. 1832: 
married (first) Katherine, daughter of Timothy and 
Bridget Sewell, and lived at Mendon. Massacluisetts. 
He died May 3, 1817, leaving a widow. Mary Chase. 
Anthony and Katherine Chase had eight children, 
of whom the seventh was Israel. 

(VII) Israel Chase, .son of Anthony Chase (6), 
was born September 13, 1760; married, February i, 



1787, (Caroline) Alatilda Butterworth, daughter of 
Noah and Dorcas Butterworth, of Smithfield, 
Rhode Island. They lived in Mendon, Paxton and 
Worcester and had six children, of whom Anthony 
was the third. 

(VIII) Anthony Chase, third son of Israel 
Chase (7), was born at Paxton, Massachusetts, June 
16, 1791 ; married (first), June 2, 1819, Lydia Earle, 
daughter of Pliny and Patience Earle, of Leicester. 
(See Ralph Earle and his descendants, p. 215.) 
Married (second), April 19, 1854, Hannah Greene, 
daughter of Daniel and Phebe ' Greene, of East 
Greenwich, Rhode Island. In early youth Mr. Chase 
lost his father, and in 1816 entered into mercantile 
business in Worcester with John Milton Earle, his 
future brother-in-law, and became one of the owners 
of the Massachusetts Spy, continuing as such from 
1823 to 1835. In 1829 he was agent for the Wor- 
cester & Providence Boating Company, formed to 
operate the newly opened Blackstone canal, and was 
soon afterward appointed collector of the canal reve- 
nue. In March, 1831. he was elected county treas- 
urer and held the office for thirty-four years. In 
1832 Mr. Chase was chosen secretary of the Wor- 
cester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and in 1852 
was its president, an office which he held until his 
death, August 4, 1879. He was one of the founders 
and the first secretary of the Worcester Lyceum in 
1829, and shaped the Worcester County Mechanics' 
Association in its infancy, drawing up its constitu- 
tion and by-laws with his own hand in 1841 ; was one 
of the corporators of the Central Bank of Wor- 
cester on 1828; was for many years treasurer of the 
Worcester Agricultural Society ; and for a long 
period director in the Citizens' Bank of Worcester; 
was trustee and vice-president of the Worcester 
County Institution for Savings. 

Mr. Chase took great interest in the public 
schools, often serving on the school committee, and 
was an alderman in the early days of the city, but 
frequently declined public offices on account of the 
confining nature of his regular vocation. He gave 
his three sons an education at Harvard College. He 
was a member of the Society of Friends, holding the 
office of elder in that body. Most of the children 
of his ancestor, William Chase (II), joined tlic So- 
ciety of Friends, and their descendants in great 
measure have been members of that religious body. 
Some of the family in Rhode Island and southeast- 
ern Massachusetts began about a century ago to 
write the name Chace, but Chase is the accepted 
spelling. He died August 4, 1879, aged eighty- 
eight years. 

Lydia Earle was descended from Ralph Earle. of 
whom a sketch is given elsewhere in this work. The 
children of Anthony and Lydia (Earle) Chase, all 
born in Worcester, were : Pliny Earle. born August 
18, 1820; Lucy, December I. 1822; Thomas. June 
16, 1827; Eliza Earle, October 8, 1829; Charles 
Augustus, see forward; Sarah E.. May 29, 1836. 
The children of Anthony and Hannah (Greene) 
Chase were: Emily G., married Joseph Russd Mar- 
ble (see sketch of George Russell Marble of Web- 
ster) ; Frederick Anthony died young. 

(IX) Charles Augustus Chase, fifth child of 
Anthony Chase (8), was born in Worcester. Massa- 
cliusetts, September 9, 1833. in a house on Salisbury 
street, where the armory now stands. His educa- 
tion began with the infant school, in a small build- 
ing that stood at the northerlv end of Summer 
street. He graduated from the Thomas street gram- 
mar school in 1845 into the "Classical and English 
High School" where he remained five years, taking 
a post-graduate course in mathematics. While in 
the high school he printed a juvenile paper, "The 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



89 



lluinblc Bee." In 1851 he entered Harvard College 
and was graduated from that institution in 1856, 
receiving the degree of A. M. in 1S5S. He joined 
the staff of the Boston Daily Advertiser in 1855, 
and filled the position of reporting the various de- 
partments and of office editor for se\-en years. In 

1862 he made a five months' tour of Europe and 
upon his return again took up his residence in 
Worcester, and in the autumn of 1864 was elected 
treasurer of Worcester county, succeeding his father, 
who had held the office for a third of a century. 
He was re-elected and served altogether eleven 
years as treasurer. In 1875 was elected on an inde- 
pendent ticket as register of deeds, serving in 1876 
— centennial year — was soon afterward elected sec- 
retary of the board of trade, and in 1879 w'as treas- 
urer and manager of the Worcester Telephone Com- 
pany. 

Mr. Chase has for more than twenty-five years 
been one of the pricipal officers of the largest sav- 
ings bank in Massachusetts outside of Boston, hav- 
ing been elected November 10, 1879, treasurer of the 
Worcester County Institution of Savings, and suc- 
ceeding Hon. Stephen Salisbury in 1904 as its presi- 
dent. This savings bank was incorporated Febru- 
ary 8, 1828. Samuel Jennison, the cashier of the 
Worcester Bank, was the first treasurer, and until 
recently the president of the Worcester Bank, has 
also been president of the Worcester County Insti- 
tution for Savings. The interests of the two banks 
were mutual. The second treasurer of the Insti- 
tution was Charles A. Hariiilton, whom Mr. Chase 
succeeded. At the time Mr. Chase became presi- 
dent of the bank, the deposits amounted to about 
$20,000,000. In 1905 the bank bought the lot at 
the corner of Main and Foster streets, and began 
to build its own home, a handsome and artistic 
structure. It should be stated also that these two 
institutions, the Worcester Bank and the Worcester 
County Institution for Savings were the pioneer 
banking institutions of Worcester county. Mr. 
Chase was a director of the Citizens National Bank 
from 1880 to 18S9; has been a director of the Wor- 
cester National Bank since January, 1888 ; of the 
(Worcester) Merchants and Farmers Fire Insur- 
ance Company since 1883. and was vice-president of 
the Worcester .\rt Society. Mr. Chase was secre- 
tary of the Worcester Lyceum Association from 

1863 to 1866, vice-president 1862-8, on the lecture 
committee from 1866 to 1880, and w-as a director 
of the Free Public Library of Worcester from 1866 
to 1874. He has been for several years treasurer 
of the Memorial Hospital and recording secretary 
of the American Antiquarian Society, and is a 
member of the New England Historic Genealogical 
Society; the Colonial Society of Massachusetts; the 
Bunker Hill Monument Association and the Wor- 
cester Societv of Antiquity. He is also vice-presi- 
dent of the Home for Aged Men ; president of the 
North End Street Railway Company, and presi- 
dent of the Worcester Harvard Club. 

Mr. Chase has written many papers and pamphlets 
relating to the history of Worcester. In 1879 Mr. 
Chase wrote under contract with C. F. Jewett & 
Company, of Boston, a history of Worcester for 
their history of Worcester county, in wdiich much 
valuable matter, the result of original research was 
preserved. For the "Historv nf Worcester County," 
published by J. W. Lewis & Company, in 1889, Mr. 
Chase contributed a chapter on the newspaper press. 
He also prepared an historical sketch of the Wor- 
cester Bank, which was published in book form 
to celebrate the centennial of that institution in 
1904. 

He married in April. 1863, Mary Theresa Clark, 



of Boston, and they had two children : Mary Alice, 
married Thomas Hovey Gage, Jr., of Worcester; 
and Maud Eliza, who lives with her father. 

HENRY SALEM PRATT. The subject of the 
following sketch is of one of Worcester's up-to-date 
business factors. His financial success has been re- 
markable and the element entering into his life and 
general business career are indeed possessed by many 
another man, but rarely applied and managed to 
the success he has wrought out by them. 

Mr. Pratt, the eldest son of Salem and Sally 
(Hobbs) Pratt, was born November 18, 1836, at 
Charlton, Massachusetts. By referring to his family 
genealogy it is learned that his grandfather. Cap- 
tain Joseph Pratt, was an officer in the war of 1812. 
Captain Pratt's grandfather was a full blooded 
Indian of Maine, traces of whose noble blood run 
down through the generations, giving courage and 
honor to the descendants. Mr. Pratt traces his 
genealogy through his mother, Sally Hobbs, whose 
mother was an Adams, to the famous Adams family, 
from which President John Adams and President 
John Quincy Adams were descended, and through 
them the ancestry has been traced back to the 
Emperor Charlemagne. This noble strain has never 
died out, and Sally Hobbs embodied the noblest 
qualities of womanhood, and was a supporter and 
guiding influence to their children as long as she 
lived. She has recently died at the age of eighty- 
seven, July 8, 1904. 

When Henry S. Pratt was quite young his par- 
ents removed to Charlton, where he remained and 
attended the schools of his neighborhood until he 
was sixteen years of age, working a part of the 
time with his father at bottoming boots and shoes. 
In 1853 we find him coming to Worcester and at 
first he worked in a shoe store for his board, but 
such a character could not long remain at the bot- 
tom of life's ladder. After two years clerking in 
a dry goods store, he. in T855, became salesman in 
the clothing store of A. P. Ware. The years roll 
by and we find him a partner in the concern. In 
1S66 there was a branch house formed, under style 
of Ware & Pratt, which today have one of the most 
complete clothing stores in the commonwealth. In 
1857 they commenced to manufacture clothing for 
the retail trade and it has come to be among the 
most extensive in the state. William W. Johnson 
became a partner after Mr. Ware's retirement in 
1870, also Edward T. Wardwell. and January i, 
rS88. a stock company Avas organized with Mr. John- 
■ion as president. Mr. Pratt as treasurer and Charles 
E. Black as clerk. The firm of Ware & Pratt 
conducted business until January r. 1869,. when it 
was changed to Ware, Pratt & Co., and remained 
so until January i, 1888, when it was changed to a 
stock company. 

Aside from his interests in this good business 
firm, he became interested in numerous financial 
institutions. In 1887 he became a director in the 
Citizens' National Bank and in i8qi its vice-presi- 
ilent. Upon the decease of Hon. Samuel Winslow, 
the president, in the autumn of 1894, Mr. Pratt was 
chosen to fill the vacancy, and he served to the 
satisfaction of the stockholders until the bank was 
merged with the Worcester Trust Company. He 
is also connected with the Mechanics Savings Bank 
of Worcester, and is one of its trustees. He bought 
I he Hillcroft farm, where he has erected a charm- 
ing residence. The view is among the most romantic 
of any within the varied and extensive as well as 
historic environments of Worcester city. He also 
built the "Chadwick Block." on Main street, the 
same deriving the name from the maternal side of 



90 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Mr. Pratt's wife's people. It should here be added 
that this block stands on the exact spot where Mr. 
Pratt commenced his career by working for his 
board until some better opening presented itself to 
him. 

Like every other good American citizen, Mr. 
Pratt appreciates the right of suffrage, and believ- 
ing the Republican party comes the nearest to main- 
taining a good form of government he casts his 
vote with it. While he is a strong party man, yet 
he prefers others to hold the public offices, while 
he labors in other fields and remains a law-abiding 
citizen of the best type. In religious belief he is 
a Unitarian and attends the First Church. 

His friends are legion. He has belonged to 
various societies, including the Hancock and Com- 
monwealth Clubs, where he was a popular and high- 
ly esteemed member. He is the active manager of 
the Ware-Pratt Company. Not unlike other well 
rounded characters, Mr. Pratt established for him- 
self a home influence by marrying Melora Fletcher, 
December 24, 1857, and to her he acknowledges 
much of the happiness of his life. The career of 
such a man should be a model for the rising young 
men of Worcester, who may be sons of parents 
unable to start them in business. Mr. Pratt com- 
menced unaided, and by virtue of industry and 
economy steadily made his way to the front rank 
in the business circle of Worcester men. He is 
kind, genial, temperate and progressive, all essen- 
tial elements in a \succcssful life. 

WILLIAM H. HOBBS. Josiah Hobbs (i). the 
pioneer ancestor of William H. Hobbs and Horace 
Hobbs of Worcester, is also the progenitor of prac- 
tically all the families in New England of this sur- 
name. He was born in England, in 1649, and came 
to America in the "Arabella," Richard Sprague, 
master, leaving Gravesend, May 27, 1671, arriving 
in Boston in July. For the next eighteen years 
he was a resident of Boston. In 1690 he removed to 
Lexington, Massachusetts, then the west precinct 
of Cambridge, and there he lived during the re- 
mainder of his life, except for two years spent in 
Woburn, in the western part, now Burlington, 
Massachusetts. In 1691 he was a subscriber to the 
building fund of the first meeting house in Lexing- 
ton. In 1692-3 he was among the contributors to 
the support of Rev. !Mr. Esterbrook. the first minister 
there. He and his wife, Tabitha, were baptized in 
August, 1699. In September of the same year their 
children : Josiah, Tabitha and Mary Hobbs were 
baptized; in October. 1700, Matthew and Susan 
Hobbs were baptized; January 8, 1710, Ebenezer was 
baptized, and April 13. 1712, Tabitha. Of his seven 
children none had families, according to the records, 
except Josiah. Josiah Hobbs (father) died May 
30, 1741, aged ninetv-two years. He married in 
1683. 

(II) Josiah Hobbs, son of Josiah Hobbs (i), 
was born in Boston in 1684, and moved to Lexing- 
ton with his parents in 1690. He resided there 
until 1705. when he was twenty-one: he then re- 
turned to Boston and settled there. In 1708 he 
married Esther Davenport, of Dorchester, and re- 
sided on a farm at the north end of Boston. Ac- 
cording to his own statements he used to drive 
cows to pasture from the North End to Muddy 
river, now Brookline. and to Roxbury, now a part 
of Boston. He told his grandchildren that he had 
hoed corn on Cornhill. Boston. He and his wife 
joined Rev. Cotton Mather's church (the New 
North) and their cliildren were christened there. 
He purchased a farm at Weston, of a man named 
Cheney, and removed there. He joined the Weston 



church and was a very devot man, of strict Puritan 
views. He died February 27, 1779, aged ninety- 
four. His wife died November 29, 1778, aged 
eighty-eight years. Children of Josiah Hobbs and 
his wife, Esther Davenport Hobbs: i. Ebenezer, born 
in Boston, 1709, married Eunice Garfield, of Lan- 
caster. 1734, died of injuries received October 19, 
1762. 2. Josiah (twin), born at Governor's Island, 
in Boston Harbor, 1721, married Mary Hunting- 
ton, of Weston ; she died 1804 ; was a soldier in the 
revolution and deacon of the church ; he died 1802, 
aged eighty-one years. 3. John (twin), born on 
Governor's Island, 1721, married Beulah Warren,^ 
of Weston; was a deacon and soldier in the revo- 
lution ; was present at the taking of Burgoyne ; he 
and his twin brother bought farms in Brookfield. 
then called Podunk : he died from a cold taken 
while he was in the service in 1777. leaving a large 
family of children, from some of whom are de- 
scended many of the Hobbs families of Worcester, 
and other towns of the county. 4. Esther, born in 

Boston, October 22, 1722, marrietl Gibbs, 

settled in Framingham, Massachusetts. 5. Sarah, 
born May 10, 1724, married Stone, of Wes- 
ton, settled in Vermont and had son. Joseph. 6. 

Dorcas, born 1726. married Parks, settled 

in Lincoln, Massachusetts. 7. Hannah, born Janu- 
ary 25, 1729, married Jeremiah Wetmore, of Wes- 
ton, settled in Middleton. Connecticut, ancestors of 
the well known Wetmore family of Boston. 8. 
Nathan, born in Weston in 1731, married Elizabeth 
Fiske, and had ten children. 

(III) Ebenezer Hobbs. son of Josiah Hobbs (2), 
was born in Boston. 1709. married Eunice Garfield, 
of Lincoln, 1734. He died of injuries received 
October 19, 1762. His widow died October 4, 1776, 
aged sixty-eight years. Children were : Isaac, born 
17.^5. married Mary Sanderson, of Waltham, 1757, 
liad several children who died in infancy : he died 
September 30. 1813: Ebenezer, born 1736, died 
October 28, 1756, unmarried; Elisha, born 1843, 
married Lois Hastings, of Waltham, 1764 ; Susan- 
nah, died young: Hepsibath, died young; Mathew, 
born 1745. married Lydia Wesson, of Lincoln, in 
1760; she died in 1782, aged thirty-five years: he 
married (second) Lucy Holmes, of Boston, who 
died 1812 : he was a soldier in the revolution ; was. 
at Lexington April 19. 1775. and followed the re- 
treating British as far as West Cambridge, where 
he was relieved and returned to Concord ; served 
under Captain Jonathan Fiske ; was captain of his 
company in 1780: Elizabeth, born 1748. married 
Phineas Gregory, who settled in Princeton in 1767: 
Samuel, born 1751. married Lucy Monroe, of Lex- 
ington, who died in 1812. aged sixty years ; he was 
one of the party who threw the tea overboard in 
Boston Harbor; settled in Sturbridge. died May 
1S23 : Esther. 1753. married Captain Bowker, of 
Sudbury, removed to western New York. 

(IV) Elisha Hobbs, son of Ebenezer Hobbs (3), 
was born in 1743. He married Lois Hastings, of 
Waltham, in 1764. He settled in Princeton before 
the revolutionary war and spent the remainder of 
his days there. He was deacon of the church. His 
wife died September 22, 1S07, aged sixty-four years. 
He died December 16, 1816. aged seventy-four years. 
Children were: Lois, born May 10. 1765, married, 
1783. John Mirick. of Princeton, where she died 
1843; Elisha. January 29. 1768; Micah. November 
22. 1770. died October 29, 1775; Jonas, .'\ugust 31, 
1772. went to Vermont early; Susanna. May 20. 
7774; Micah. Septemlier 29. 1776. died at Hope. 
Maine, February 2. 1842. aged sixty-six years, had 
two sons. Josiah and Henry; John. Julv 21. 1779, 
married Betsey Bailey, of Sterling; William, .'Ku- 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



91 



gust 30, 1781, married Nancy Gill, of Princeton, had 
three sons: William, born 1809, resided in Wor- 
cester, and Elisha lived on the homestead in Prince- 
ton : Moses, October 24. 1/8.^ married Mercy Gill, 
of Princeton, was killed in Hubbardston at the rais- 
ing of a barn, 1823. 

(V) John Hobbs. son of Elisha Hobbs of 
Princeton (4), was born in Princeton. Massachu- 
setts, July 21, 1779. He married Betsey Bailey, of 
Sterling. Their children were: Betsey, born March 
10. 1800: John, June 17, 1801. resided in Yonkers, 
N'ew York: Micah, February 22. 1804, married a 
daughter of Moses Hobbs and resided in Prince- 
ton : George. May 16, 1806. resided in Worcester ; 
Henry. November 4, 1808, died 1840; Susan. June 
2. 181 1 : Isaac, June 13, 1813, removed to Hope, 
Maine ; Samuel, January 29. 1816, at Princeton ; 
Bailey, October 8, 1818, resided in Yonkers, New 
York. 

(VI) George Hobbs, major-general, son of John 
Hobbs (5), was born in Princeton, Massachusetts, 
May 16, 1806. He died in Worcester, November 3, 
1872. He married Calista Beaman, 1829. He set- 
tled in Sterling, where he kept a hotel in the days 
when the country tavern was at the height of its 
prosperity. He also managed an extensive stage 
business there. General Hobbs removed to Worces- 
ter in 1838 and kept the Eagle Hotel, at the corner 
of Main and Thomas streets. He is still remem- 
bered by the older citizens of Worcester as a manu- 
facturer of brick. He had kilns on Lincoln street, 
and continued to manufacture bricks until his health 
failed, a few years before his death. He invested 
in real estate and built many brick buildings in 
various parts of the city. He left a valuable estate. 
He was one of the few Worcester men who attained 
the rank of major-general; he becaine commander 
of the City Guards in 1840, and he rose through 
the various ranks in the state militia to that posi- 
tion. He resigned in 1856. but always retained an 
interest in the military affairs of the state. He 
had two sons, prominent officers in Worcester regi- 
ments in the civil war. He was highly respected 
as a citizen as well as a soldier. For several years 
he was chief of the Worcester fire department. He 
served the city of Worcester in 1861-63-64 as alder- 
man. He was an assessor for several years. Dur- 
ing the last years of his life he was in feeble health, 
for a year w'as confined to the house. 

The Worcester Gazette said of him at the time 
of his death : "He was deeply interested in the 
military branch of the public service, and the spirit 
and efficiency of the militia in his time were largely 
due to his influence and example. * * « in all 
positions of public trust he was faithful and 
energetic." 

Children of George and Calista (Beaman) 
Hobbs : .■Vnn. born 18,30, at Sterling, married George 
S. Howe : she resides at present in The Aurora, 
Worcester; Horace, September 2, 1831. at Sterling; 
Martha, at Sterling, 1834; Catherine or Kate Rust, 
born 1836; George Webster, March 22, 1839. at 
Worcester; William Harrison, April 28, 1841. at 
Worcester. 

(VII) Horace Hobbs. son of General George 
Hobbs (6). was born in Sterling, Massachusetts, 
September 2, 1831. He attended the Worcester 
public schools. He learned the profession of civil 
engineering and surveying and followed it for about 
seven years. He was a strong anti-slavery man, 
and when Eli Thayer organized the movement for 
Free Kansas Mr. Hobbs was one of the first to enlist 
as a pioneer. When he reached Kansas he found 
the feeling at fever heat. In fact he participated in 
the first practical and effective resistance against 



slavery. He was in a cavalry company in the town 
of Lawrence at the time of the Border Ruffian In- 
vasion from Missouri, and he remained in Kansas 
until hostilities ceased. He was there thirteen 
months. He worked at brick making, with his 
father, for about five years in all. When the civil 
war broke out he enlisted early. In 1863 he was 
commissioned captain of Company H, Fifty-first 
Regiment. 

Captain Hobbs lived for a time in Auburn, a 
town adjoining Worcester. He was town treasurer 
there for five years. He was deacon of the Con- 
gregational church for a number of years, treasurer, 
and also superintendent of the Sunday school. All 
his life he has been known as an earnest and con- 
sistent supporter of the temperance movement in 
its various forms. In politics he has always been 
a Republican, and has been satisfied with the straight, 
ticket. He has never voted for a Democrat. Since 
1876 he has been examiner of titles at the Wor- 
cester county registry of deeds. His careful, pains- 
taking work there is known to members of the bar 
all over the state. He and his brother have made 
a specialty of searching titles, and have won a high 
reputation for excellent work. He is a member of 
George H. Ward Post. No. 10, G. A. R., and of 
the Loyal Legion. He is also a member of the Con- 
gregational Club and the board of trade. 

He married (first) Mary P. Parker. He married 
Csecond) Maria K. Knowles, daughter of Elisha 
and Eunice (Huntington) Knowles, of .\uburn. The 
children of Horace and Mary P. (Parker) Hobbs; 
Horace B., died at the age of eighteen months ; 
Cora Louise, a clerk in the office of the register of 
deeds; William H.. attended the Worcester high 
school, a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Insti- 
tute, then took a course at Harvard University, at 
Johns Hopkins, and at Heidelberg University, Ger- 
many (where he studied again in 1905) ; for some 
years professor of geology in Wisconsin State Uni- 
versity at Madison. Wisconsin ; he married Sarah 
Kimball, has one child. Winnifred B., born 1900. 
Children of Horace and Maria K. (Knowles) Hobbs: 
Howard K.. was in the Second regiment at the battle 
of Santiago, is sergeant of the Worcester Light In- 
fantry and treasurer of the company ; also treasurer 
of Willie Grout Camp. Sons of Veterans ; treasurer 
of the Sunday school ; graduate of Worcester high 
school ; associated with his father and uncle as 
examiner of titles at the court house. Alice M., 
graduate of Wheaton Seminary. 

(VII) George Webster Hobbs. son of General 
George Hobbs (6), was born in Worcester, March 
22, 1839. He was educated in the public schools of 
his native city and at Norwich L^niversity, Vermont. 
He studied law with Colonel E. B. Stoddard. He 
was admitted to the bar and commenced to practice 
in i860, at LTxbridge. He was a lieutenant in the 
Worcester Light Infantry. For many years he was 
one of the most prominent and influential citizens 
of Uxbridge. He was interested in historical sub- 
jects and wrote extensively. He married Chloe E. 
Taft. daughter of David Taft. of Uxbridge. 

(VII) William Harrison Hobbs. youngest son 
of General George Hobbs (6), was born in Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts, April 28, 1841. in the hotel at 
the corner of Main and Thomas streets, which at 
that time was kept by his father. He first attended 
school in the old school house on Main street ; then 
in the Thomas street school in the various grades. 
He also attended the Worcester Academy, the 
Highland Military Academy and the Worcester 
high school. In 1855 he joined the Worcester Light 
Infantry, and was with his company in the famous 
march through Baltimore at the beginning of the 



92 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



civil war, April 19, 1S61. This company was part 
of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment. He was one of 
those detailed by Captain Harrison W. Pratt to 
notify the members of the company to be at the 
armory for active service. He still has the written 
order, viz. : 

"Private W. H. Hobbs : You are hereby ordered 
to warn, and give immediate verbal notice, to the 
non-commissioned officers and privates of the com- 
pany under my command, and whose names are 
specified in roll annexed, to appear at their armory 
at four o'clock in the forenoon of Wednesday, the 
seventeenth day of April, current, uniformed and 
equipped as the law directs for military duty and 
active service. 

H.^RRisoN W. Pratt, 

"Commanding Company B, Third Battalion In- 
fantry." 

He was mustered out of service, with the rank 
of corporal, at the expiration of his enlistment. 
After his return from the service Mr. Hobbs went 
into the business of brick-making with his father, and 
continued until the death of his father in 1872. In 
the following year he went to Haverhill and started 
in the brick business, but on account of the financial 
troubles and hard times of that period, he sold out 
in 1874. He returned to Worcester and entered 
the real estate and conveyancing business. He had 
an office in the building on the present site of the 
Chadwick until 18S3, when he- went into the registry 
of deeds, working with his brother Horace in ex- 
amining titles. He has continued in this business 
ever since. At present he is the head of the Hobbs 
Title Company, and his associates are Samuel H. 
Longley and Howard K. Hobbs, his nephew. Mr. 
Hobbs is well known, especially among the law- 
yers of the county, and is highly esteemed. He is 
regarded as one of the leading experts in real estate 
matters in Worcester county. He is a Republican 
in politics, but not an active one. He belongs to 
George H. Ward Post, No. 10, G. A. R., and has 
been a member of the auditing committee for the 
past three years ; a member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. Qninsigamond Lodge, No. 48, and 
trustee of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows' 
Mutual Benefit Association for several years, also a 
member of the Veteran Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows' Association, having been an Odd Fellow 
for twenty-five years. Mr. Hobbs married, 
November 26, 1865, Martha Lydia Holt, daughter 
of Lucius K. and Rebecca (Miles) Holt. They 
have two children, both living : Charles H., resides 
at New Orleans, educated at Worcester Academy ; 
Katharine, lives with her parents, 146 Main street, 
Worcester. 

(I) Nicholas Holt, the pioneer ancester of Mrs. 
William H. Hobbs, was born in England, in 1602. 
He came from Romsey, England, in the ship 
"James," William Cooper, master, sailing April 6, 
and landing in Boston June 3, 1635. He was one of 
the first settlers at Newbury and Andover, Massa- 
chusetts. . At Newbury he was husbandman, pro- 
prietor and town officer. He made a long journey 
with others to take the freeman's oath May 17, 
1637, and vote against Sir Harry Vane. He was a 
tanner as well as a farmer. He removed to And- 
over in 1644. He sold his Newbury land Novem- 
ber 14, 1652. He is called a plate-turner (wood- 
worker) in .some records. He married (first) Eliza- 
beth • . She died at Andover, November 9. 1656. 

He married (second), June 20, 1658, Hannah 
(Bradstreet) Rolfe, widow of Daniel Rolfe and 
daughter of Humphrey Bradstreet. She died June 



20, 1665. He married (third) Mrs. Martha Preston, 
widow of Roger Preston, May 21, 1666. She died 
March 21, 1703, aged eighty years. He died Jan- 
uary 30, 1685, aged eighty-three years. Children of 
Nicholas and Elizabeth Holt: Hannah, born in 
England, married Robert Gray; Elizabeth, born at 
Newbury, March 30, 1636; Mary, born at Newbury, 
October 6, 1638; Samuel, October 6, 1641; Henry, 
born 1644, of whom later; Nicholas, 1647; James, 
1651; Priscilla, June 20, 1653. Children of Nicho- 
las and Hannah Holt were : Rebecca, born Nov- 
ember 14, 1662; John, January 14, 1663-4. 

(II) Henry Holt, fifth child of Nicholas Holt 
(i), was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, 1644. 
He married, February 24, 1669, Sarah Ballard, 
daughter of William Ballard. She died at Andover, 
November 25, 1733. He died January 17, 1719, 
aged seventy-five years. They joined the church 
June 3, 1716. He was prominent in town affairs. 
In 1686 he owned a mill on Ladle brook. Children 
were : Elizabeth, born in Andover, Massachusetts, 
December 29, 1670; Oliver, January 14, 1671 ; Henry, 
January 24, 1673; James, see forward; Geqrge, 
March 17, 1677 ; Sarah, August 17, 1678 ; Josiah, 
December 13, 1679 ; Dinah, May 23, 1681 ; Paul, 
February 7, 1684; William, February 3, 1687; 
Zerviah, Alarch 24, 1689; Keturah, December 15. 
1690; Humphrey, September 22, 1693; Benjamin, 
July 8, 1696. 

(HI) James Holt, fourth child of Henry Holt 
(2), born in Andover, Massachusetts, September 3, 
167s, married. May 24, 1705, Susannah Preston. She 
died February 20, 1741-2. He died November 25, 
1751, aged seventy-six. Their children: Abigail, 
born in Andover, Massachusetts, March 20, 1705, 
died 1716; James, 1707; Zerviah, 1712; Barzillai. 
see forward; Abigail, died February 20, 1756. 

(IV) Barzillai Holt, fourth child of James 
Holt (3), born in Andover, Massachusetts, Octo- 
ber 25, 1715, married (first) August 27, 1738, Eliza- 
beth Goss; married (second), February 22, 1759, 
Lois Allena, and settled in iNIarlboro, Massachu- 
setts, in the part later set oft' as Shrewsbury. He 
was one of the first settlers in West Boylston, 
about 1720. He died at Boylston in 1774, aged 
fifty-eight years. Children of Barzillai and Eliza- 
beth (Goss) Holt: Abel, see forward; Barzillai, 
May 12, 174s; James, June 6. 1746; Elizabeth, 
August 29, 1753 ; Silas, born in Marlboro ; Levi, 
May 6, 1760; Abiel, May II, 1763; Jotham, Jan- 
uary ID, 1765. 

(V) Abel Holt, eldest child of Barzillai Holt 
(4), Ijorn in Marlboro, Massachusetts, June 14, 
1740, married, October 21, 1765, or February 27, 

1766, Eunice Keyes, daughter of Henry Keyes, of 
Shrewsbury, born April ig, 1745. died October 21, 
1840, aged ninety-five years and six months. He 
died February 18, 1815, aged seventy-five years. He 
was a soldier in the revolution. Children were : 
Lois, born in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, May 11, 

1767, married William Drury, of Holden : Amasa, 
born in Boylston. April 24, 1772, married, 1798, 
Nabby Nourse, of Berlin; Asa, born in Boylston, 
June 26, 1776; Abel, June 26, 1776, married Hannah 
Wright; Jonas, October 22, 1779; Eunice, October 
21, 1782; Henry Keyes, July 2, 1788, married, No- 
vember 16, 1813, Lydia Fairbanks, see forward ; 
Tyler, September 21, 1791, married, October i. 1812, 
Arethusa Fairbanks ; she died August 16, 1837. He 
died November 8, 1866, at West Boylston. 

(VI) Henry Keyes Holt, seventh child of Abel 
Holt (5), born in Boylston, Massachusetts, July 
2, 1788, married, November 16, 1813, Lydia Fair- 
banks, a descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks, of Ded- 
ham, in the following line: Lydia (VI), Seth (V), 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



93 



Jonatlian (l\), Jabez (.111). Jonas (II), Jon- 
athan (I). He died September 8, i8j8, from in- 
juries received in a fall. His widow married (sec- 
ond), September 25, 1844, Nathaniel Davenport. 
Children of Henry Keyes and Lydia (.Fairbanks) 
Holt : Henry Fairbanks, born in South Berwick, 
Maine, November 26, 1816, married, December 22, 
1841, Martha Levina Wood, daughter of Merritt 
Wood ; Lucius Keyes, see forward. 

(.VH) Lucius Keyes Holt, youngest child of 
Henry Keyes Holt (b), born in Sterling, Massachu- 
setts, married, October 10, 1843, Rebecca F"rost, of 
Marlboro, Massachusetts. They resided in Lan- 
caster, Massachusetts. Children were : Martha 
Lydia, born in Shirley, Massachusetts, November 
24, 1845, see forward; Henry Keyes, born in Lan- 
caster, March 5, 1850, died August 4, 1857, drowned 
at Holyoke, Massachusetts; Frank E., born in 
Holyoke, December 17, 1856. married Nellie Hast- 
ings; resides at Bayonne, New Jersey; superintend- 
ent of the Singer Sewing Machine Company fact- 
ory at Elizabeth, New Jersey; they have one child, 
Olive, born 1893; Lucius M., born in Lancaster, 
July 13, 1859, deceased. 

(.VHI) Martha Lydia Holt, eldest child of Lu- 
cius Keyes Holt (7), born at Shirley, Massachu- 
setts, November 24, 1845. In early life she lived 
with her parents and went to school in Clinton, 
^lassachusetts. During the civil war the family 
lived at Easthampton. She attended Williston 
Seminary and Worcester Academy. She is a mem- 
ber of the Fairbanks Association and as indicated 
above is descended in the same line as Vice-Presi- 
dent Fairbanks, who is her cousin. She married 
William Flarrison Hobbs. (See sketch above.) 

ARTHUR LANE SAFFORD. Thomas Saf- 
ford (i), the immigrant ancestor of Arthur Lane 
Safford, of Lancaster, Massachusetts, was born in 
England and settled in New England at Ipswich 
before 1641. He was on the list of proprietors of 
the town April 6, 1641, and was admitted a freeman 
December 19, 1648. He bought a farm at Ipswich, 
thirty-two acres, of Henry Kingsbury, February 8, 
1648. He was a subscriber to Denison's allowance 
in 164.0 and had a share and a half in Plum Island. 
He died in February, 1666-7. His will was dated 
February 20, 1666-7, and proved March 26, 1667. 
He gave his farm to his son Joseph on condition 
of his care of the father and mother and paying 
certain amounts to daughters Elizabeth, Mary and 
Abigail. 

He married Elizabeth , who died March 4, 

167, at Ipswich. Their children were: Joseph, 
born 1631 or 1632, (he deposed March 29, 1692, 
that he was about fifty-nine or sixty years old,) 
was admitted a freeman 1682 ; married, March 6, 
l(36o, Mary Baker; John, of whom later; Elizabeth, 
Mary, Abigail. (One of the daughters married 
 Kilum.) 

(II) John Safiford, son of Thomas Saftord (i), 
was born about 1633, probably in England. He set- 
tled in Ipswich, Massachusetts. He had a share of 
Plum Island. He gave land to his son Thomas for 
the maintenance of his wife and daughter by deed 
dated September 5, 1698. The children of John 
and Sarah Safford were : John, Jr., of whom later ; 
Sarah, born July 14, 1664, died July 21, 1712; Mar- 
garet, February 28, 1665-6; Rebecca, August 30, 
1667 ; Mercy or Mary, born February 26, 1669-70 ; 
Elizabeth, February 27, 1670-1 : Thomas, October 
16, 1672, married, October 7, i6g8, Eleanor Shats- 
well or Setchwell. widow of Richard Setchwell and 
daughter of Daniel Cheney; married (second) at 
Rowley, June 29, 1725, Sarah Scott; their son Jo- 



seph was a pioneer at llardwick, where many of his 
descendants live; Joseph, March 12, 1674-5. 

(III) John Safford, Jr., son of John Saftord 
(2), was born about 1660. He took the oath of 
allegiance in 1683 at Ipswich. He was administra- 
tor of the estate of his father-in-law, Thomas New- 
man, March 5, 1691. He married, September 15, 
1685, Hannah Newman, daughter of Thomas New- 
man. He married (second), June 28, 1702, Abigail 
Martin. He resided at Ipswich. The children of 
John, Jr, and Hannah Safford were : John. Jr., 
born February 28, 1687-8; Hannah, September 24, 
1691 ; Sarah, December 25, i()94; Mary, March 5, 
1697; Elizabeth, January 24, 1700. The children of 
John, Jr. and Abigail Safford were : Mary, April 
24, 1703; Joseph, January 18, 1705; Gideon, March 
24, 1709, of whom later. 

(IV) Gideon Safford, son of John Safford, Jr., 
(3). was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, March 24, 
1709. He lived in Ipswich. He married there, 
January 13, 1731-2, Elizabeth Hill. Their children 
were: !Mary, born September i, 1732; Thomas, 
October 15, 1735, of whom later; Elizabeth, Sep- 
tember 17, 1737; Thankful, October 15, 1739; Amy, 
January 25, 1742; Lucy, April 3, 1744; Samuel, Jan- 
uary 2, 1748; Pagy, May 10 1750; Anne, July 12, 
1752; Gideon, Jr., November 4, 1754. 

(V) Thomas Safford, son of Gideon Safford 
(4), was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, October 
IS) I73S- He was a soldier in the French and 
Indian war and was in Captain Jonathan Brown's 
company at Lake George in 1758. During the 
revolution he was living at or near Watertown, and 
he enlisted July 2, 1778, with others to serve as 
guards over the powder magazine for six months. 
He continued to serve on this duty until August 
2, 1779. He was called "corporal" in some of the 
records. He married at Watertown, July 31, 1764, 
Sarah Kettell, of Medford, his residence being given 
as Dedham. His wife joined the Dedham church, 
March 23, 1766. The only record of birth of chil- 
dren born to Thomas and Sarah is found in Ded- 
ham records : Thomas, baptized at Dedham, 
August 24, 1766, by Rev. Mr. Townsend. 

(VI) Thomas Safford, Jr., son of Thomas 
Safford (5), of Dedham and Watertown, was bap- 
tized at Dedham, August 24, 1766. He lived at 
Dedham, Watertown and Concord. He learned the 
trade of baker. He removed from Concord to 
Lancaster in 1795. He bought of Joseph Willington 
Page of Lancaster for one thousand and ninety 
pounds his estate in Lancaster, including land on 
the Berlin road, land known as the Rugg Intervale, 
formerly of Isaac Rugg's estate, and land on the 
Harvard road by deed dated April 22, 1795. This 
deed gives his residence as Concord, but he must 
have removed immediately afterward, as his son 
Thomas was baptized at Lancaster, September 6, 

1795- 

He married (first) Elizabeth Stetson, who died 
at Lancaster, March 11, 1818, aged forty-nine years. 
He married (second), 1819, Anna Brigham. Eliza- 
beth Stetson was the daughter of Ebenezer Stetson, 
who married in Watertown, July r, 1765, Lucy Rug- 
gles. Ebenezer Stetson died in 1809 and the chil- 
dren of Thomas and Elizabeth (Stetson) Safford 
were named among his heirs, Thomas Safford be- 
ing appointed guardian of the minor children, Sep- 
tember 26, l8og. The second wife was of Marl- 
boro, Massachusetts. The children of Thomas and 
Elizabeth Safford, all except George, born or bap- 
tized in Lancaster, were: George, of whom later; 
Thomas, baptized September 6, 1795 ; Catherine, bap- 
tized April 23, 1797, died July 4, 1798; Joseph Collis, 
baptized December 6, 1798; Francis Augustus, bap- 



94 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



tizcd August 3, 1800, died August 3. 1801 ; Caro- 
line, born ilay 30, iSo2, died August 31, 1803; 
Catherine, born December g, 1804, died February 
14, 1807; Henry, born March i, 1807; Susan Pahiier, 
born February 19, 1809; Adehne, born January 13, 
181 1 ; Elizabeth, (guardian appointed at her fathers 
death). 

(VII) Gtorge Safford, eldest son of Thomas 
Safiford (6), was born about 1794, probably in Con- 
cord, Massachusetts. He was brought up in Lan- 
caster and attended school there. He was a farmer. 
He married Mary (Polly) Stevenson, July 8, 1816, 
daughter of ^lartin Stevenson, of Lancaster. She 
died February 19, 1831, aged thirty-six years. He 
was guardian of their children who were heirs of 
their grandfather Stevenson, who owned forty acres 
on George Hill. The children of George and Polly 
Safiford were: Charles, born September 14. 1817, 
of whom later ; George Fosdick, born March 19, 
1819, had children: George and Helen Shortly; 
Roby Ruel, born December 12, 1821 ; Augustus, born 
January 9, 1825 ; Henry, of Fitchburg ; Mary E. 
George Safford married again and had Fred, whose 
children are George Safford and Lizzie Snyder of 
Troy, New York. George Safford married a third 
wife. 

(VIII) Charles Safiford, son of George Safiford 
(7), was born in Lancaster, September 14. 1817. 
He resided in Lancaster, where he carried on the 
business of cabinet making, painting, etc. He was 
for many years the town undertaker. He died in 
1879, aged sixty-nine years. He married. May 16, 
1843, Julia A. D. Carter, than aged twenty-four 
years. Their children were: A daughter, died 
young; Charles Ethan, born October 17, 1845, mar- 
ried twice ; one son, Clarence, was killed in the 
destruction of the iVIaine at Havana; Sarah Julia, 
February 16, 1847, died June 22, 1847 ; Ellen Frances, 
June I, 1848, married Frank Havard, of Bolton ; 
they have two sons and two daughters ; Frank, a 
painter by trade, died unmarried at Lancaster ; Henry, 
a painter by trade, married Carrie DivoU ; has had 
five children, two of whom are living; Arthur 
Lane, of whom later ; William P.. is in the em- 
ploy of his brother in the general store at Lan- 
caster; married Lillian Wilder, daughter of Wil- 
liam G. Wilder, of Clinton ; they have one daughter 
Mabel. 

(IX) Arthur Lane Safford, son of Charles 
Safford (8), was born at Lancaster,- Massachu- 
setts, August 15, 1856. He attended the public and 
high schools of his native town. At the age of 
sixteen he began to work in the general store at 
Lancaster. The store changed hands several times, 
but he remained in the employ of the various pro- 
prietors until December, 1879. when in partner- 
ship with Benjamin Kingsbury Gallup he became 
proprietor of the store himself. The firm name was 
Gallup & SafTord and they had an excellent busi- 
ness. In 1891 Air. Safiford bought out his partner 
and since then has conducted the business alone. 
He has a high grade general store, groceries, dry 
goods, hardware, agricultural implements and the 
usual stock of the large country store. He also 
deals in grain, flour, etc. His former partner is 
now manager for the Swift concern of a branch at 
Trenton, New Jersey. 

In politics Mr. Safiford is a Republican. He was 
for seven years town treasurer and tax collector, 
but declined to serve after his partner withdrew 
from the business. He is at present trustee of the 
town's charity funds, held under various bequests, 
for the benefit of the poor of the town. He is a 
Free Mason, member of Trinity Lodge of Clin- 



ton. He is a member of the Lancaster Lodge of 
Odd Fellows. 

He married Marian Adams Fuller, daughter of 
Edward M. Fuller, brother of Eben S. Fuller, of 
Clinton. (See sketch of FTiller family in this work.) 
Their children were : Edith Marie, born June, 1891 ; 
Edward, May 6, 1895. 

ELI JONES WHITTEMORE. The genealogy 
of the Whittemore family to which Eli Jones Whitte- 
more. of Worcester, belongs, has been traced back 
in England to the twelfth century. Mr. Whitte- 
more has the result of the researches of D. J. 
Whittemore, chief engineer of the Chicago, Mil- 
waukee & St. Paul Railroad, which were carried on 
for a number of years in England at considerable 
e:<pense and infinite pains to secure accuracy. A 
vast amount of information that he collected should 
be edited. A brief abstract only can be used here. 
It will serve to correct some of the errors in the 
Whittemore and Whitmore genealogies.^ The name 
is commonly spelled Whitmore in England, while 
some descendants of the original stock spell their 
name Wetniore. 

( I ) The Whitmores of Stafifordshire, England, 
were originally termed de Boterel. The name of 
the father of William de Boterel (1100-1135) and 
his brother, Peter de Botrel, is unknown. W'illiam 
had a son William (1158-1163). 

(II) Peter de Botrel. of Staft'ordshire, had a 
son Radulph or Ralph. 

(III) Ralph de Botrel (1152-1171) married twice. 
His son William by the first wife married -Avisa de 
Whitmore (1179). William (IV) (1174) had a son 
Reginald (V) (1204-16). who had a son Robert 
(VI) (1238), who had a son Robert (VII) (1260). 
This is not the American line. That descends from 
the second wife, by her son Ralph de Botrel and 
not by Rad Fitz Wetmore (1220-40). an illegitimate 
son. Rad had a son Will le Burgvyllon (1242-54). 

{I\') Ralph de Botrel had a son. Sir John. 

( \' ) Sir John de Whitmore married Agnes 
(1252-76) and had at least three sons: John, Lord 
of Whitmore, founder of what the genealogists call 
the Caunton line ; William, married Alice Fenners, 
had son Philip (VII), founded what is called the 
Claverly branch: Ralph (VI). 

(VI) John W^hitmore. son of Sir John Whit- 
more. married Margerie ( 1270-1301). 

(VII) Richard of Whitmore married Susannah 
Draycote, daughter of Sir Philip Draycote. of 
Painesley, knight, and had : Jane, married John 
Blunt : Mary, married John Gififord : Beatrix, mar- 
ried John Chetwind; Christina, married Richard 
Fleetwood ; Philip. 

(VIII) Philip Whitmore. married Thomasine. 
daughter of Richard Oliver (?), and had a son, 
Richard Whitmore. 

(IX) Richard Whitmore, son of Philip Whit- 
more (8). married (first) a daughter of Sir Ralph 
Bagot ; married (second) daughter of Richard 
Deverenx; married (third) a daughter of Simon 
Harcourt. probably of Ellcnhall. Stafifordshire, and 
by his third wife had son Nicholas, 

(X) Nicholas Whitmore. son of Richard Whit- 
more (9). married Annie .A.ston, daughter of Thomas 
Aston, of Tixall. Stafifordshire, and had: Mary, 
married William Lusone ; Anthony. 

(XI) .Anthony Whitmore. son of Nicholas Whit- 
more (10), married Christina Vaux. daughter and 
heir of Nicholas Vaux. and had : Joan. William. 

(XII) William Whitmore. son of .\nthony Whit- 
more (11), had a son John. 

(XIII) John Whitmore. of Cauuton. second son 





-^IZ 



i 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



95 



of William VVhitmore (12), in the reign of Henry 
VI, married Alice Blyton, danghter and licir of 
Robert Blyton, of Cannton, county Notts; married 
(second) Catherine Compton, daughter and heir 
of Robert Compton. of Hawton (.Visitation of York 
1563), and had: William; Robert, who was the 
heir. 

(XIV) Robert Whitmore, son of John Whit- 
more (13), ot Caunton. married Catherine Claye, 
daughter of George Claye, of Finningly, county 
Notts (Visitation of Yorkshire), and had son Will- 
iam, the heir, who married a daughter of John Rid- 
ley.' William of Rotterham died in 1568. Robert 
Whitmore married (second) Alice Atwoode. of 
Harlington. Bedfordshire. He died at Caunton in 
1540. By this marriage the children were: Richard, 
died without issue. 1559; John, living in 1545; 
Charles, died 1568; Thomas, living in 1559, probably 
died about 1603; Edmund, living in 1559: Rowland, 
living in 1591 ; James, Randall, and three daugh- 
ters. Thomas Whitmore, Sr., of Hitchin, was the 
son of Edniund or Rowland, sons of Robert. Hitchin 
is the parish where the emigrant Thomas Whitmore 
was born, and he was the son of another Thomas 
Whitmore, as will be seen later. 

(XV) Charles Whitmore. son of Robert Whit- 
more (14). died in 1568. He lived at Tu.xforth, 
county Notts. His children were : William, died 
1582 in county Notts; John, supposed to have lived 
in StafTordshire and died IS/I : Robert, died 1608; 
Richard, died 1578; James, died 1614; Thomas, 
the elder, died 1649: Roger, of Hitchin; Christo- 
pher, of county Beds, died 1640; four daughters, 
and a posthumous child supposed to be George. 
Three of the sons spelled • the name Whittamore, 
three spelled it Watmore and one Whitmore. the 
spelling that has prevailed in England. 

(XVI) Thomas Whitmore, son of Charles Whit- 
more (15), lived at Hitchin. county of Hertford, 

England. He married Mary . His two sons 

emigrated to New England : Thomas to Maiden. 
Massachusetts, and John to Stamford. Connecticut. 
Thomas, of Maiden, is the ancestor of most of the 
American Whittemores. John Whitmore, of Stam- 
ford, had a daughter Elizabeth and son John 
Whittemore. who was of age in 1649. lived at Stam- 
ford and Middletown. Connecticut. 

(XVD Roger Whitmore, son of Charles Whit- 
more (15), and brother of Thomas Whitmore. of 
Hitchin. was the father of Nicholas Whitmore: 
Nicholas was the father of two sons also who 
emigrated to New England ; Francis Whitmore to 
 Boston and Thomas Whitmore to Middletown. 
Connecticut. From these are descended the Amer- 
ican Whitniores. Their father was a first cousin 
of the Maiden emigrant. Thomas Whittemore. 

(XVII) Thomas Whittemore. son of Thotnas 
Whittemore (16). was born at Hitchin, Hertford- 
shire. England. He came to New England prior 
to 1640. for at that time he was in Charlestown. 
Massachusetts, on the Mystic side, which later was 
the town of Maiden, and signed a petition with 
neighbors for better privileges in 1640. He bought 
land there of Mr. John Cotton in 1645. This lot 
adjoined his home lot and is now in the city of 
Everett. Massachusetts. It remained in the Whitte- 
more family until May i. 1845. over two hundred 
years after he bought it. The site of the first dwell- 
ing house is known. 

He married (second) Sarah Deardes, April 14. 
1623, in England. She was buried November 17, 
1628. He married (third) Hannah , who ac- 
cording to her deposition in 1662, was born in 1612. 
She married (second) Benjamin Butterfield. June 
3. 1663, at Chelmsford. Massachusetts. Thomas 



Whittemore died at Maiden. May 25, 16O1. His will 
was proved June 25, 1661. Children of Thomas 
Whittemore were: Sarah, baptized April 14, i5i6; 
Mary, baptized May 12, 1624; Thomas, baptized 
October 6, 1626, lived in England ; Daniel, baptized 
July 31, 1633, married Mary Mellins, daughter of 
Richard Mellins, of Charlestown, March 7, 1662; 
John, baptized April 27, buried 29, 1635 ; Nathaniel, 
baptized May i, 1636, married Mary Knower. left 
no male descendants; John, baptized February II, 
1638-9, at Hitchin, England, as were also all the 
preceding ; settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had 
fifteen children and has many descendants; Eliza- 
beth: Benjamin, married Elizabeth Bucknam, who 
died July 18, 1726; he died July 16, 1726; Thomas 
(one of the few cases where there are two sons 
of e.xactly the same name living at the same time. 
The elder Thoinas Whittemore was in England and 
never came over) married Elizabeth Peirce, of 
Woburn, November 9, 1666, and had son Thomas, 
born August 14. 1667: Samuel, married Hannah 

, removed to Dover. New Hampshire, thence 

to Somerville, Massachusetts, and died September 
15. 1726; both he and his wife buried at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts; Peletiah ; Abraham, served in the 
army in King Philip's war in 1676. died January 
14, 1690-1. 

(XVIII) Daniel Whittemore. son of Thomas 
Whittemore (17). was born in Hitchin, Hertford- 
shire, England, and baptized there July 31. 1633. 
He married Mary Mellins. daughter of Richard 
Mellins. of Charlestown. March 7, 1662, Richard 
removed from Charlestown to Weymouth, where 
he was admitted a freeman September 7, 1639. He 
inherited the homestead from his father and settled 
on it. He bequeathed the homestead to his sons 
Daniel and John, the latter being the father of 
John Whittemore, of Leicester. The will was non- 
cupative and was not proved till nearly two years 
after his death. His widow Mary was the ad- 
ministrator. Children of Daniel Whittemore were : 
Daniel, born April 27, 1663. resided in Charlestown 
and Maiden, died September 21, 1756, aged ninety- 
four ; left the homestead to his son Daniel : John, 
February 12. 1664-5. died 17,30: Thomas. March 5, 
1667; Mary. February 15, 1668-9; Nathaniel. Feb- 
ruary 7, 1670; Peletiah, 1680; James. 

(XIX) John Whittemore. son of Daniel Whitte- 
more (18), married Ruth Bassett. She and her 
sister. Lydia Bassett. who married his brother Daniel 
Whittemore. were daughters of Joseph Bassett. son 
of the emigrant. William Bassett, who came over 
in the "Fortune" in 1621. lived at Du.xbury, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1637, was deputy to the general court 
in 1640-41-42-43-44: Bassett joined Governor Brad- 
ford and others in the purchase of Dartmouth, 
Massachusetts, and removed to Bridgewater, where 
he died in 1667. John Whittemore died in 1730. 
His wife Ruth was appointed administratrix .\pril 
3. 17,30. His whole estate was appraised at five 
hundred and three pounds. Children of' John and 
Ruth Whittemore were : John, born September 12, 
1694, settled in Leicester: Jeremiah (ti. v.): Benja- 
min, married Sarah Kendall. 1723; Patience, mar- 
ried Timothy Lamson ; David, born .\pril 6. 1706, 
married Alice Kendall, of Bedford, Massachusetts, 
March 11, 1730-31, resided at Boston; Deborah, 
born March r, 1707-8; Peletiah, born October ,30. 
1710. resided at Dunstable. 

(XX) Jeremiah' Whittemore. son of John 
Whittemore (19), was born in Maiden. Massachu- 
setts. T69.;. He married in Boston. March 15, 1722, 
Patience Reed, seventh daughter of Israel and I\Iary 
(Kendall) Reed, of Woburn. Massachusetts. She 
was born December 3, 1699. She was received in 



96 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



the Weston Church from the church in Chelsea, 
February 26, 1726-7, and died in Weston, October 
24, 1745, aged forty-seven years, ten months, twenty- 
one days. They were then living in Weston. He 
married (second). May 10, 1746, Abigail Wooley, 
of Concord. He died in Concord, Massachusetts, 
March 31, 1783, aged eighty-eight years. His chil- 
dren were by the tirst wife. 

Children of Jeremiah and Patience (Kendall) 
Reed were : Jeremiah, born in Concord, August 16, 
1723, of whom later; Isaac, born in Weston, Massa- 
chusetts, November 15, 1726, married, May 9, 175I1 
Ruth Bullard, who died October 10, 1764; he mar- 
ried (second) (published July 6), 1765. Elizabeth 
Graves, of Sudbury, Massachusetts ; he had seven 
children; Patience, born January 20, 1729-30, mar- 
ried, May 28, I7S4, John Flagg; Israel, bom July 
10, 1732, married. May i, 1755, Abigail Brown, had 
seven children ; Asa, born August 7, 1736, died 
April 12, 1746. 

(XXI) Jeremiah Whittemore, son of Jeremiah 
Whittemore (20), was born in Concord, Massachu- 
setts, August 16, 1723, and died at Spencer, Massa- 
chusetts, May 14, 1803, aged seventy-eight years. 
He went from Weston to settle in Spencer in 1760. 
Some of his children were born before he moved, 
some afterward. He married Mary Carter. Their 
children were: Amos, died 1751 ; Asa. born Novem- 
ber 10, 1749, married Lucy jvluzzey, March 2, 1765, 
removed from Spencer to the south part of Leicester, 
Massachusetts, died 1821. -he died 1822; (Otis 
Whittemore now or lately living in Leicester is a 
grandson, as is also Eber Whittemore. Their father 
was Amos. Mrs. H. D. Edwards, daughter of Asa's 
son Charles, is now or was lately living in Leices- 
ter, Massachusetts) ; Reuben, born April 29, 1754; 
Mary, born in Weston, married Nathan Wright, 
October 26, 1779; Tamar. born June 18, 1756, mar- 
ried Robert Watson ; Sybil, born January 17, 1758, 
married Reuben Underwood, February I, 1779; 
Aaron, born in Spencer, March i. 1762, married 

Sally ; Esther, born in Spencer. December 28, 

1764, died unmarried: Jeremiah, born in Spencer, 
February 21, 1766. married. February 21, 1792, Polly 
Washburn, of Paxton ; Sarah, born in Spencer, 
March 16, 1768. married Ebenezer Kingsbury. 

(XXII) Reuben Whittemore, son of Jeremiah 
Whittemore (2r). born April 29, 1754, at Weston, 
Massachusetts, died at Spencer. April ig. i8'?2. He 
married Abigail Watson, March 2, 1794. He set- 
tled at Spencer. Massachusetts. Their children 
were: Betsey, born at Spencer. June 15, 1780, mar- 
ried James Browning: Amos, born at Spencer. Sep- 
tember 7. 1782. resided in Hartford, Connecticut, 
married Sally (Barnard) Hotchkiss, July 18. 1813; 
he died July 3, 1854 ; she died August 13. 1853 ; 
had six children ; Thankful, born February 6, 1785, 
died August 22. 1838; Daniel, born at Spencer, 
April 28. 1787, married Fanny Prouty. daughter of 
Joshua Prouty. March 4. 1815; he died October 
5. 1872, aged eighty-five; she died November 21, 
T843. aged fifty-four; Roswell. born October 3, 
1789: Rhubcn. born in Spencer. February 5. 1795, 
married Salome Clark, November 30, 1819, born 
September 5, 1795, died January 22. 1869; he died 
January 17, 1861. had eight children : Oliver, born 
February 11, 1797. of whom later: Caroline, born 
December 14, 1798, married Samuel M. Hobbs ; 
William, born July 7, 1801. died April , 4, 1841, 
unmarried : Abigail, born in Spencer November 20, 
1803. married Augustus Rider, of Spencer, had one 
son, .'\lfred. 

(XXIII) Oliver Whittemore. son of Reuben 
Whittemore (22). was born in Spencer, Massachu- 
setts, February 11. 1797, died March 29, 1830. He 



married Lydia Jones, June 26, 1823. He was a 
farmer. His children were: Eli Jones, born April 
30, 1824 ; Harriet Susannah, born March 8, 1826, 
married, April 19, 1S53, Phmeas Jones, of Spencer, 
Massachusetts, removed later to Newark, New Jer- 
sey, where he was in partnership in the wheel- 
wright business with Eli J. Whittemore; she died 
March 6, 1866 ; had one son, Frederick Augustus, 
born August 21, 1868; Oliver Augustus, born March 

2, 1828, married in Denver, Colorado, , no 

children. 

(XXIV) Eli Jones Whittemore, son of Oliver 
Whittemore (23), was born April 30, 1824, in Spen- 
cer, Massachusetts. He was educated in the dis- 
trict schools of his native town and at Leicester 
Academy, at Leicester, Massachusetts. His father 
died when he w-as only six years old. He worked 
on a farm until he was sixteen, when he entered the 
wheelwright shop of S. G. Reed at Spencer. He 
became a partner of Mr. Reed some years after- 
ward and succeeded him in the business there. Mr. 
Whittemore manufactured carriages and w.agons and 
developed a substantial business in which he ac- 
quired a competence. In 1866 he removed to 
Newark, New Jersey, where he entered partner- 
ship with Phineas Jones, who married his sister, 
Harriet L. Whittemore. The firm name was Phineas 
Jones & Company and they did a general wheel- 
wright business and manufactured carriages and 
wagons. The firm still does a prosperous business 
there. Mr. Whittemore sold his interests to Mr. 
Jones, his partner, in 1874 and retired. The present 
owner of the business is Henry P. Jones, son of 
Phineas, the original partner with Mr. Whittemore. 

Mr. Whittemore returned to Worcester county 
when he retired from business and settled in Wor- 
cester. In 1877 he moved to the handsome house 
on Main street, which he now occupies. While 
in Spencer he served four years as postmaster under 
President Lincoln, as assessor for two years and 
selectman for three years. He is one of the ap- 
praisers of the Mechanics' Savings Bank of Wor- 
cester. In politics he is a Republican. He was 
formerly a member of the Worcester County Me- 
chanics' Association and the Agricultural Society. 

He married (first), April 13, 1858, Maria I. 
Pope,^ at Spencer, Massachusetts. She died in 1862 
at Spencer. He married (second) Elizabeth M. 
Hamblett, of Manchester, New Hampshire, at that 
city. May 3, 1866. She died February 19. 1901. 
He had two children by the second marriage, 
namely : Eric Hamblett, born July 30, 1867 ; Emma 
Lizzie, February 23, 1869, resides with her father 
in Worcester. 

(XXV) Eric Hamblett Whittemore, son of Eli 
Jones Whittemore (24), w-as born in Newark. New 
Jersey, July 30, 1867. He married Jennie Black, 
of Medford. Massachusetts. He w^as educated in 
the Worcester schools, graduating from the Wor- 
cester high school. He is engaged in the manu- 
facture of paper boxes in Fitchburg. a business 
which he started and built up himself. His chil- 
dren are: Elizabeth Hamblett, born October 7, 1897; 
Ruth Bailey, July 2, 1905. 

DR. KENDALL EMERSON. The Emerson 
Family, which has been prominent in New England 
since the first settlement, originated in En.gland 
and numbers among its members many distinguished 
and able men. The first to use the name Emerson 
in England was Johannes Emeryson. of Brancepeth 
parish. Durham county, England, who was born 
before 1300. From him the various branches of the 
English family are descended, though the line can- 
not be traced perfectly'. The coat of arms w-as borne 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



97 



by the American branches of the family as well as 
the English. 

(I) Thomas Emmerson. the first English an- 
cestor to whom the pedigree of Dr. Emerson, of 
Worcester, can be traced definitely, was born some 
time before 1540 in England. He was a resident 
of Great Dunmow, county Essex, where his three 
children are registered. He was probably son of 
Ralf of Foxton. who received arms in 1535. His 
children were: Robert, baptized at Great Dunmow, 
October 25, 1561 ; Joan, baptized 1562 ; John, bap- 
tized 1565. 

(II) Robert Emerson, son of the preceding 
Thomas Emerson (i), was born in Great Dunmow 
and baptized there October 25, 1561. He^ may be 
identical with Robert Emerson, of Bishop's Stort- 
ford, who married there November 24, 1578, Susan 
Crabb. who was buried there November 20, 1626, 
aged seventy years. Robert was buried at Bishop's 
Stortford, January 6, 1620. His children were : 
Alice, baptized at Bishop's Stortford, November 22, 
1579: Margaret, baptized February 21, 1581-2; 
Thomas, see forward ; Anne ; Robert, baptized April 
12, 1596; John. 

(HI) Thomas Emerson, son of the preceding 
Robert Emerson (2), was baptized at Bishop's Stort- 
ford, July 26, 1584. In the church warden's book 
of St. Michael's he is recorded as a collector for 
the poor in 1636. He inarried Elizabeth Brewster, 
July I, 161 1, at Bishop's Stortford, and the 
genealogist of the English Emersons suggests that 
she was the daughter of the postmaster of Scrooby 
and the elder of the colony at Plymouth. The chil- 
dren of Thomas Emerson, as recorded in the bap- 
tismal registry of St. Michael's church at Bishop's 
Stortford, Herts, were : Robert, baptized May 24, 
1612: Benjamin, baptized October 2, 1614; Ralfe, 
baptized October 19, 1615, killed by falling tree 
June. 1626: James, baptized February 16, 1617; Jo- 
seph, baptized June 25, 1620, settled in Mendon, 
Massachusetts ; Elizabeth, baptized June 14. 1623 ; 
John, baptized February 26, 1625, settled in Glouces- 
ter. Massachusetts ; Thomas, see forward ; Nathaniel, 
baptized July 18. 1630, settled Ipswich, Massachu- 
setts: Susan, baptized March 17, 1632, may have 
died on the voyage. 

(IV) Thomas Emerson, son of the preceding 
Thomas Emerson (3), was the emigrant ancestor 
of Dr. Emerson. He died in Ipswich, Massachu- 
setts, May I. 1666. His wife Elizabeth was named 
executrix of his will 1653. She suri'ived him. They 
settled in Ipswich. They came according to family 
tradition in the ship "Elizabeth Ann" in 1635. He 
had a grant of land there in 16.^8. The children of 
Thomas Emerson were: Elizabeth, married John 
Fuller; Thomas, died 1653, before his father; Jo- 
seph, see forward; John. 1625, died December 2, 
1700: James, resided in England; Nathaniel, 1629; 
Sarah, died August 12, 1640. 

(V) Joseph Emerson, third child of Thomas 
Emerson (4), the emigrant, was born in England, 
about 1620-1. and died at Concord, Massachusetts, 
January 3. 1680. Through his son Joseph he was 
the ancestor of that most illustrious American, 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph Waldo (9) : Wil- 
liam (8) ; Joseph (7) ; Edward (6) ; Joseph (5) ; 
He married, 1646, Elizabeth Woodmansey, daugh- 
ter of Robert and Margaret Woodmansey, school- 
master of Boston. They resided at Ipswich, Massa- 
chusetts. York, Maine and Milton. Massachusetts. 
Joseph Emerson was a Puritan minister, said to have 
been educated in England. He may have studied 
at Harvard. He was at Ipswich as early as 1638. 
He was admitted freeman there December 19, 1648. 
He preached at York, Maine, the same year. In 

7 



1653 he was a resident of Wells and took the free- 
man's oath there July 4, 1653. He signed a petition 
to Cromwell while of Wells, asking the Protector 
to confirm the jurisdiction of Massachusetts over 
the inhabitants of Wells. About 1664 he left Wells, 
where he seemed to have a turbulent lot of parish- 
ioners and where the church, after he left, had to 
disband. About 1(164 lie became minister at Milton, 
Massachusetts. December i, 1669, he settled in 
Mendon, Massachusetts, where he remained until 
the town was destroyed by the Indians, when he 
retired to Concord, where he died. He married 
(second), December 7, 1665, Elizabeth Bulkeley, 
daughter of Rev. Edward Bulkeley, of Concord, 
Massachusetts, granddaughter of Rev. Peter Bulke- 
ley, first minister of Concord. She was born in 
163S and died September 4. 1693, having married 
Captain John Brown, of Reading, Massachusetts. 
The children of Rev. Joseph Emerson were : (by 
the first wife) Joseph, Mary; (by second wife the 
following:) Lucian, born October 2, 1667, married, 
May 15, 1683, Thomas Damon, of Reading (see 
Damon family) ; Edward, April 26, 1670, married 
Rebecca Waldo ; Peter, see forward ; Ebenezer ; 
Daniel, married. May 19, 1709, Jane Armitage. 

(VI) Peter Emerson, son of Rev. Joseph Emer- 
son (5), was born in Mendon, Massachusetts, 1673 
and died 1749. He married, November 11, l()g6, 
Anna Brown, who was born in Reading, 1678, daugh- 
ter of Captain John and Anna (Fiske) Brown, of 
Reading. Captain John Brown had married Peter's 
mother. They resided in the first parish of Read- 
ing, now South Reading, on the farm inherited 
from Captain Brown. Peter Emerson was a 
farmer. The children of Peter and Anna (Brown) 
Emerson were : Aima. born July 6, 1697, died Au- 
gust II, 1697; Elizabeth, February 20, 1699; Anna, 
March 9, 1701, resided in Hollis, New Hampshire; 
Brown, .'Vpril 16, 1704; Lucy, 1706; Sarah, Novem- 
ber 8, 1708: Jane, March 11, 1711, resided at Hollis; 
Mary, December 20, 1713, resided at Salisbury, 
Massachusetts: Rev. Daniel, May 20, 1716 (see 
forward), resided in Hollis; Catherine, t)ecember 
2, 1718. 

(VII) Rev. Daniel Emerson, ninth child of Peter 
Emerson (6), was born at Reading. Massachusetts, 
May 20, 1716, died at Hollis, New Hampshire, Sep- 
tember 30. 1801. He married, November 7, 1744, 
Hannah Emerson, daughter of Rev. Joseph and Alary 
(Moody) Emerson, of Maiden, Massachusetts. She 
was born at Maiden, December 3. 1722. died at 
Hollis. February 28, 1812. They resided at Hollis. 
Mr. Emerson was graduated at Harvard College, 
1739. and immediately prepared himself for the work 
of the ministry. In 1741 he was called to be the 
first minister of Hollis. New Hampshire, then the 
west precinct of Dunstable, Massachusetts. He con- 
tinued minister until Novetnber 27, 1793, when Rev. 
Eli Smith, who married his granddaughter, was 
elected as his colleague. In 1755, during the old 
French war, he was chaplain to the famous rangers 
of which Robert Rogers and John Stark were the 
officers. He was considered the ranking officer 
because of his family arms, bearing three lions. 
He kept a journal during his service and it has 
been preserved. He was chaplain again in 1758 
in Colonel Hart's regiment. One of his letters to 
his wife, dated at Crown Point in 1755, was brought 
to Hollis by his dog, which he had trained for the 
purpose. He taught school and fitted his students 
for college. He gave the land on which the meet- 
ing house was built. He was one of the ablest advo- 
cates of the "New' Light" doctrine, and for many 
years was the leading and most influential minister 
in his section of the country. Professor Churchill 



98 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



said of liim : "He was a kind of Congregational 
Bishop in his region." His dwelling house, built 
and occupied while he was minister in Hollis, is in 
good repair and habitable. The children of Rev. 
Daniel and Hannah (Emerson) Emerson were: 
Hannah, born September 30, 174S; Daniel, Decem- 
ber 15, 1746 (see forward) ; Mary, September 19, 
1748; Peter, November 9, 1749; Lucy, October 29, 
1751 ; Mary, November 14, 1753; Elizabeth. May 5, 
1755: Ebenezer, August 14, 1757; Joseph, Septem- 
ber 2S, 1759 (H. C. 1779); Ralph, March 4, 1761 ; 
Rebecca, July 5, 1762; Samuel, September 6, 1764; 
William, December 11, 1765. 

(VllI) Daniel Emerson, second child of Rev. 
Daniel Emerson (7), was born at HoUis, New 
Hampshire, December 15, 1746, died there October 
4, 1820. He married, November 17, 1768, Ama 
Fletclier, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Under- 
wood) Fletcher. She was born April 7, 1746, died 
November 22, 1797. They resided at Hollis. He 
was a leading citizen, the wealthiest taxpayer and 
deacon of the church. He was one of the eighteen 
proprietors of New Ipswich, New Hampshire, 
preached there occasionally and had his tax re- 
funded for that reason. He was one of the thirty- 
two proprietors of the New Ipswich Academy in 
1787, and was a trustee from the time of its in- 
corporation in 1789 until his death. In the revolu- 
tionary war Captain Emerson was active. As a min- 
ute man he marched at the head of his company 
for Ticonderoga in 1776, reaching the Connecticut 
river. He started a second time and reached 
Cavendish, Vermont. He was captain of the first 
company in Colonel Nichol's regiment and of the 
fifth company in Colonel Mooney's regiment. He 
served in the Rhode Island campaign in 1778-9. 
He was a member of the governor's council in 1787, 
and representative to the legislature nineteen 
terms, 1780-1812. He was coroner and high sheriff 
of Hillsboro county. New Hampshire, town clerk 
of Hollis, 1780-81, selectman twelve years, and town 
treasurer 1774-79 and 1798 and 1799. Mrs. Emer- 
son inherited besides the Fletcher blood that of 
Adams and Underwood, founders of Chelmsford, 
Massachusetts. Her father settled in Dunstable 
when it was a wilderness, and lived there fifty 
years a prominent and respected citizen. Family 
-gatherings were held twice yearly until their chil- 
dren and grandchildren numbered above sixty in 
the Fletcher homestead at Dunstable. The chil- 
dren of Daniel and Ama (Fletcher) Emerson were: 
Ama, born August 20, 1769, died August 4. i860, 
married Rev. Eli Smith; Daniel, see forward; 
Hannah, December 7, 1773: Joseph, October 13, 
1777; Ralph, August 18, 1787; Samuel, November 
9, 1791 ; William, November g. 1791 (twin of pre- 
ceding). Daniel Emerson married (second) Han- 
nah Mosier, widow, who survived him and died 
August 20, 1831. 

(IX) Daniel Emerson, second child of Daniel 
Emerson (8), was born at Hollis, New Hampshire, 
July 15, 1771, died at Dartmouth, Massachusetts, 
November 16, 1808 He married. December 3, 
1797, Esther Frothingham, a daughter of Major 
Benjamin Frothingham. She was liorn in Charles- 
town, Massachusetts, 1770, died in Hollis, New 
Hampshire, March 14, 1849. They resided at 
Charlestown, in Maryland, in Virginia, in New 
Hampshire and at Dartmouth. Mr. Emerson was 
graduated at Harvard. 1794. He was a student 
at law with Samuel Dexter. He was a merchant 
in (Tharlestown, in Maryland, in Virginia and Hollis, 
New Hampshire. He sold out to his partner, 
Bixby, who did not pay the firm's debts as agreed, 
and he ruined himself in paying them. He was 



ordained in 1806 and settled as minister at South 
Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where he remained un- 
til his death. His widow returned to Hollis and 
for many years kept the village store, driving to 
Boston at regular intervals in her own chaise to 
make purchases. She thus supported and educated 
her large family. The children of Daniel and 
Esther (Frothingham) Emerson were: Daniel, born 
August 8, 1798; Elizabeth, July 29, 1800, died Octo- 
ber 4, 1870, married, August 26, 1823, William S. 
Bradbury, resided at Westminster, Massachusetts ; 
Edward. October i, 1802, died April 21, 1851, mar- 
ried, November 13, 1844, Hannah Pierce : resided 
at Hollis and at Allegan, Michigan ; Charles, April 
9, 1805, died July 6, 1805; Benjamin Frothingham, 
see forward ; Joseph, September 4, 1808, died July 
21, 1885, married (first) Sarah H. Davis, (second) 
October 16, 1858, Martha A. Howard, resided at 
Andover. 

(X) Benjamin Frothingham Emerson, fifth 
child of Daniel Emerson (9), was born at Hollis. 
New Hampshire, July 3, 1806, died at Nashua, 
New Hampshire, September 6, 1884. Mr. Emerson 
entered Dartmouth College in 1826 and studied 
two years ; he was graduated from Union College 
in 1830. He attended the law school at Cambridge 
the next year, then taught school .in the west. He 
practiced law in Nashua from 1836 to 1873, and 
was intrusted with the settlement of many of the 
largest estates of that region. He married, Novem- 
ber 29, 1842, Elizabeth Kendall, daughter of Nathan 
and Elizabeth (Thompson) Kendall. She was 
born at Bedford, New Hampshire, October 7, 1812. 
died at Nashua, September 26, 1870. They resided 
a Nashua. He married (second), October 9, 1872, 
Caroline Carlton (Frye) Rankin, widow of James 
Henry Rankin, and daughter of Samuel and Mary 

(Hoyt) Frye, of Danville, Vermont, where she 
was born February 8, 1817. She died March i, 
1886. The children of Benjamin Frothingham and 
Elizabeth (Kendall) Emerson were: Benjamin 
Kendall, see forward ; Charles Edward, born Octo- 
ber II, 1846, graduate of the Chandler Scientific 
School at Hanover, New Hampshire, 1870, a civil 
engineer of Nashua, New Hampshire. 

(XI) Professor Benjamin Kendall Emerson, 
eldest child of Benjamin Frothingham Emerson 
(10), was born at Nashua, New Hampshire, Decem- 
ber 20, 1843. He married, April 2, 1873, Mary .\n- 
nette Hopkins, a daughter of Erastus and Charlotte 
Freylinghuysen (Allen) Hopkins. She was born at 
Northampton, Massachusetts, April 2, 1848, died at 
Amherst, Massachusetts, July 31. 1897. They resided 
at Amherst. Mr. Emerson was graduated valedictor- 
ian of the class of 1865 of Amherst College. He 
studied at Gottingen and took his Ph. D. there in 
1869. He was assistant in the German geological 
'iurvey in 1869 and made geolo,gical studies in Swit- 
zerland, Saxony, Bohemia and Norway. He became 
professor of geology and zoology at Amherst College 
in 1870. He is the author of the genealogy. The 
Emerson Family, an excellent work. He is a mem- 
ber of the German Geological Society, the Ap- 
palachian Club, the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
the Society of Naturalists of Eastern United States, 
the National Geographic Society. He was vice- 
president in i8g6 of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, vice-president in 1897 
of the Geological Congress at St. Petersburg, first 
vice-president in 1898 of the Geological Society of 
America, assistant geologist of the United States 
Geolo.gical Survey since 1887 and is now geologist 
(1905). He is the author of monograph xxvii. 
United States Geological Survey, entitled : Geology 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



99 



of Old Hampshire county or Franklin, Hampshire 
and Hampden counties, in Massachusetts. He wrote 
bulletin No. 126, United States Geological Survey, 
<-ntitled: A Mineral Lexicon of Franklin, Hamp- 
shire and Hampden counties, in Massachusetts. He 
ti-rote the United States Geological Survey bulletui, 
entitled: The Geology of Southwestern Berkshire, 
,^nd also the United States geological survey folios, 
which contain geological maps and descriptions of 
Eastern Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden 
and Worcester counties in Massachusetts. He has 
w-ritten many articles for the scientific journals. 

Mrs. Emerson's father was the Hon. and Rev. 
Erastus Hopkins, of an ancestry noted in the New 
England ministry. Her great-great-grandmother 
w^as Esther Edwards, sister of Rev. Jonathan Ed- 
• wards. Her grandfather on her mother's side was 
Rev. William Allen, D. D., president of the 
ephemeral Dartmouth University and later of 
Bowdoin College. She was also descended from 
Eleazar Wheelock, founder of Dartmouth College, 
from Rev. Thomas Allen, of Pittsfield, the re- 
nowned "fighting parson" of the American revolu- 
tion, and also in the eighth generation from Wil- 
liam Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth 
colony. Of her the Springfield Republican, August 
6, 1897, said : 

"The college circle at Amherst feels itself sadly 
stricken by the recent unlocked for death of Mrs. 
Annette Hopkins Emerson, wife of Professor B. K. 
Emerson. Her life seemed so abounding in health 
and joyousness that her friends cannot realize that 
it is ended. It was Mrs. Emerson's rare and happy 
fortune to radiate sunlight in the world through 
her bright and fervent personality. None who came 
within the range of its influence failed to feel its 
cheering effect. Nor was its characteristic merely 
negative loveliness. There was a fire, a ^sparkle, 
an intellectual stimulus in Mrs. Emerson's pres- 
ence and conversation that were fairly exhilirating. 
So clever and charming and genuine a woman did 
not fail to receive recognition as a leader in the 
social life of Northampton, which became her home 
after marriage. Though her attention was largely 
occupied in her later years by the absorbing do- 
me^stic interests which belong to the rearing of a 
large family, she kept well in touch with the pro- 
gress of the intellectual world. She had a decided 
literary interest and could herself Write brightly 
and forcefullv when occasion offered. She had 
hoped to go with her husband to the congress of 
geologists at St. Petersburg this summer, and had 
planned to describe her experiences and impres- 
sions in letters to the Republican and other jour- 
nals; but she was obliged to forego this great 
pleasure. It is hard to submit to the termination 
of a life so strong, so rich, so healthful ; but solace 
and inspiration come with the thought of its ac- 
complishment, its wholesome and helpful influence." 

The children of Professor Benjamin Kendall and 
Mary Annette (Hopkins) Emerson were: Char- 
lotte' Freylinghuvsen, born January 3, 1874, graduate 
of Smith College; (Benjamin) Kendall, see for- 
ward; Edward Hopkins, born September 18, 1877, 
graduate of Amherst, 1899; Annette Hopkins, born 
September 3. 1879; Malleville Wheelock, born 
August 28, 1887; Caroline Dwight, born March 14, 
1891. 

(XUy Dr. Benjamin Kendall Emerson or 
Kendall Emerson, as he is known, having dropped 
his first name, son of Professor Benjamin Kendall 
Emerson (11), was born in Northampton, Massa- 
chusetts, June 27, 1875. He attended the public 
schools of Amherst in early life. He entered Am- 
herst College in 1893 and graduated in 1897. He 



is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa of Amherst. 
He was graduated from Harvard Medical School 
in 1901, and after some hospital practice settled in 
Worcester and began the practice of his profession, 
in which he has made good progress and has ac- 
quired an excellent practice. He married, October 
I, 1903, Josephine Devereux Sewall, born in Water- 
town, New York, October 14, 1875. She is a grad- 
uate of Smith College, 1897. They have one child, 
Sewall, born at Worcester, October 13, 1904. They 
reside at 72 West street, Worcester. Dr. Emerson's 
office is on Pearl street. 

HENRY H. STOWE. John Stowe or Stow (i), 
was the progenitor in New England of Henry H. 
Stowe, of Lancaster, Massachusetts. He came with 
his wife Elizabeth and six children in one of Win- 
throp's companies and settled in Roxbury, Massachu- 
setts. He arrived May 7, 1634. The children were 
Thomas, Elizabeth, John,- Nathaniel, Samuel and 
Thankful. He was admitted a freeman September 
3. 1634. He was a proprietor of the colony and a 
delegate to the general court in 1639. He was 
elected in 1638 a member of the Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery Company. 

He married Elizabeth Biggs, daughter of Mrs. 
Rachel Biggs, who came to Dorchester in 163S 
with her daughter, • — — Foster. The Foster and 
Stowe children received valuable legacies from their 
uncles, John and Smalhope Biggs, of Cranbrook and 
iMaidstone. Kent county, England. His wife, Eliza- 
beth, a very godly woman, was buried August 24, 
1636. All his children were probably born in Eng- 
land. They were : Thomas, resided at Concord, 
Massachusetts, and Middletown, Connecticut. Eliza- 
beth, married Henry Archer. John. Samuel, born 
about 1620, graduated from Harvard College in 
164s, the second class to graduate, the year 1644 
having no graduates. (The Harvard quinquennial 
catalogue states that he had the A. M. degree. There 
had been but thirteen graduates before he had his 
degree. There were seven graduates in 1645.) He 
was a clerg^'man at Middletown, Connecticut. He 
died in 1704. Nathaniel, resided at Ipswich, was 
born according to a deposition he took there in 
1622. Thankful, married John Pierpoint, of Rox- 
bury, Massachusetts. 

(II) Thomas Stowe, son of John Stowe (i), 
was born in England, probably Lincoln or Middle- 
sex county, where the families of Stowe were numer- 
ous about 1610. He was in Concord, Massachusetts, 
before 1640, and had a family of at least three 
children. Samuel, Thomas and Nathaniel. He and 
his brother Nathaniel owned six hundred acres of 
land between Fairhaven Pond and the Sudbury Line. 
Thomas Stowe sold his rights in 1660 to Thomas 
Gobble and David Dam, he having moved to Con- 
necticut. He probably left Concord about 1650 and 
moved to Middletown, then part of Hartford. Con- 
necticut. The town of Stow, Massachusetts, was 
near Marlboro and Sudbury where this land of 
the Stowe brothers was located, but the Stowe 
family seems to have had no part in establishing 
the town. It was incorporated in May,_ 1683, but 
the history shows no Stowe active as a pioneer. In 
fact the whole family seems to have been in Con- 
necticut about this time, and the Stowes do not 
appear as of the town of Stow until much later. 
Still the town was probably named in some way 
for a member of the family or by a friend of 
the Stowes. 

The children of Thomas Stowe were : Samuel 
who became the progenitor of the Marlboro and 
Stow families after his return to Massachusetts; 



lOO 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Nathaniel ; Thomas, born 1650, settled in Middle- 
town, Connecticut. 

(Ill)- Samuel Stowe, son of Thomas Stowe (2), 
was born in Concord, Massachusetts, before his 
father went to Middletown, Connecticut, probably 
about 1648. He was a soldier in King Philip's war. 
Immediately afterward he became interested in the 
new settlement at Marlboro. His name is on a 
petition for the plantation in 1677 and he was prob- 
ably there some months before, perhaps directly 
after peace was established and the settlers in towns 
like Sudbury and Marlboro were able to work 
their plantations once more. In 1684 he bought 
of Waban and James Atchuit, two Indians of Natick, 
Massachusetts, for six pounds in money and six 
pounds in corn — twenty acres of land in Marl- 
boro. He was also one of the proprietors of the 
Ockoocangansett plantation purchased by the In- 
dians. He was prominent as a proprietor and citizen 
of the new town. 

His children were: S'amuel, born Alay 2, 1680, 
married, December ig, 1704, Sarah Snow; Thomas, 
born December 2y, 1682, married, January 20, 1713, 
Hannah Johnson ; Mary, born July 18, 1685, married, 
June 13, 1706, Jonathan Morse; Thankful, born 
October 8, 1687, married. March 29, 1710, Samuel 
Stevens: Rachel, born February 21, 1690, married. 
December 14, 1715, Luke Rice; John, born March 
30, 1696. married, April 25, 1722, Elizabeth Brig- 
ham. All three sons left large families of children 
and have numerous descendants in Marlboro and 
central Massachusetts. 

(IV) Thomas Stowe, son of Samuel Stowe (3), 
was born probably at Marlboro (where it was 
recorded). December 27, 1782. He married, Jan- 
uary 20. 1 713, Hannah Johnson, daughter of Will- 
iam and Hannah Johnson. She died June 15, 1789. 
He died August 28. 1765. His will proved October 
8, 1765, mentions his sons Benjamin, Thomas, Sam- 
uel, Stephen and David and Experience Newton, 
deceased: also son Josiah who is required to pro- 
vide for the support of his mother, Hannah. 

Their children were: Comfort, born July 16, 1716, 
died 1716; Thomas, born September 8, 1717, died 
1717: Benjamin, born August 25, 1718: David, born 
(jctober 14, 1719, died young; Thomas, born October 
IS, 1720, married, June 3. 1752, Elizabeth Newton: 
Charles, born December 31. 1721, died young; Sain- 
uel, born December its. 1723, married, April 28, 
1748. Rebecca Howe: Stephen, born December 15, 
1724. married. May 2},, 1753, Abigail Smith: Josiah, 
born December 8, 1725, died young : Hannah, born 
December 9, 1726, died young; Experience, born 

February 24, 1728, married Newton; David, 

born April 29, 1729; Josiah. born July 5, 1730, mar- 
ried, 1760. Ruth Howe; Hannah, born September 
8, 1731 ; Sahella, born September 4, 1732, died 1752; 
Silas, born October 20. 1734. All the sixteen chil- 
dren seem to have been by one wife, an unusual fam- 
ily even for those prolific days. She was evidently 
over ninety, the mother, when she died. 

(V) Stephen Stowe. son of Thomas Stowe (4), 
was born at Marlboro, Massachusetts. December 15. 
1724. He married. May 23, 1753, Abigail Smith. 
Two of their children were born at Marlboro. They 
removed to Stow, Massachusetts, probably about 
1758, where for several generations their descendants 
lived. He was a soldier in the revqlutionary war. 

Their children were : Lydia, born in Marlboro, 
March 24, 1754: Silas, born in Marlboro, April 26. 
I7s6; Tcliabod. born about 1758 (and others prob- 
ably) on the old homestead in Stow, Massachusetts. 

(VI) Ichabod Stowe. son of Stephen Stowe (5), 
was born in Stow, Massachusetts, 17.^9. He married 
Ruth Whitney, November 29, 1781. He was a soldier 



in the revolutionary war. He settled in Stow and 
conducted the' old farm. He had a son Moses and 
other children, namely : Ichabod, Abraham, Levi, 
Luke. 

(VII) Moses Stowe, son of Ichabod Stowe (6), 
was born on the old Stowe homestead at Stow, 
Massachusetts, in 1803. He died in Lancaster, 
Massachusetts, in 1883. He attended the schools in 
Stow. He went to work first on the old farm, but 
later decided to learn the wheelwright's trade. He 
followed this business all his active life. He set- 
tled in Lancaster where he spent his last years. In 
politics he was originally an "old line Whig" and 
was deeply interested in his party, for which he 
worked earnestly and faithfully. He married Eliza 
W. Jones. January i, 1829. They had two children: 
Franklin, born October 16, 1829, died September 
2},, 18.17 : and Henry H., born March 29, 1841. 

(VIII) Henry H. Stowe, son of Moses Stowe 
(7), was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, March 
29, 1841. He was educated there in the public 
schools and then for a time worked at the wheel- 
wright's trade with his father. He succeeded to 
his father's business and conducted it successfully. 
He was able to retire a few years ago and enjoy 
life quietly and comfortably at his pleasant home in 
Lancaster,- Massachusetts. Mr. Stowe has always 
taken an interest in political affairs and at times 
has been an active worker in the Republican party. 
He has been overseer of the poor of Lancaster 
for several years. He belongs to the local branch 
of the Red Men and is active in the order. He is an 
active member of the Lancaster Unitarian church. 
As a conservative but successful man in his own 
business, as a man of high personal character, of 
simple manly virtues he has the respect and con- 
fidence of his neighbors. He married in 1863, Lydia 
.■\. Robbins. of Ashby, Massachusetts. Their chil- 
dren are: Mabel G., born at Lancaster, Massachu- 
setts, December, 1873, resides at home ; Cora R.> 
born at Lancaster. August 29. 1877, stenographer 
for Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company, 141 
Milk street, Boston, Massachusetts. 

JOHN HENRY COES. a retired business man 
of Worcester. Massachusetts, formerly serving in 
the capacit}' of treasurer of the Coes Wrench Com- 
pany, one of the leading industrial enterprises of 
that city, was- born in Springfield, Massachusetts, 
September 2^. 1840. a son of .\ury Gates and Nancy 
(Maynard) Coes. grandson of Daniel and Roxana 
f.r Roxalana (Gates) Coes, and great-grandson of 
John Coes, who settled in Worcester. Massachusetts, 
prior to the revolutionary war. So far as is known 
all the Coes in this country are descended from 
this John Coes and his wife Rebecca. John Coes 
died in Worcester. June 24, 1827, aged seventy- 
nine years. 

Daniel Coes (grandfather) was born on his 
father's farm in Massachusetts, in that part of Wor- 
cester formerly known as New Worcester. Decem- 
ber 19, 1776. was reared thereon, and died January 
26. 1838. He married, October 26, 1S08. Roxana 
( Roxalanv or Ro.xalana) Gates, and their children 
were : Sallv, born February 22, iSio. died February 
16. 1832; Loring. born .\pril 22, 1812: Albert, born 
September 20. 1813, died Februa.ry 13. 1837; Aury 
Gates, born January 22. 1816. The Gates family is 
mentioned at length hereinafter, 

.Aury Gates Coes (father) was born in Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts. January 22, 1816, and died 
December 2. 1875. Among the firms for which he 
worked during his early life was that of Kimball & 
Fuller, makers of woolen machinery, and in 1836 
Aury Gates and his brother Loring purchased the 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



lOI 



business, forming the copartnership of L. & A. G. 
Coes. Aury Gates Goes also took an active part 
in poUtics, wielding a potent influence in behalf of 
the principles of the Republican party. During 
the years 1870-71 he served in the house of repre- 
sentatives, and was a member of several important 
committees. He was an active and leading member 
of the Union Congregational Church in Worcester, 
Massachusetts. He married Nancy Maynard, born 
181 3. died December i, 1842, who bore him one 
child. John Henry, mentioned at length hereinafter. 
He married (second) May 29, 1845, Anna S. Cutting, 
who bore him two children : Anna Rebecca, born 
March 25. 1847: and Frederick Lewis, born Janu- 
ary 9, 1S49. He married (third) Mi;s. Lucy Gib- 
son, nee Wyman. a widow, born in Fitchburg, who 
bore him two daughters : Estella, born September 25, 
1S58, died in Dresden, January 3, 1883, unmarried; 
and Marv. born March 24, 1861 ; she is a graduate 
of Radcfiffe College, class of , 1887, and received 
the degree of Master of Arts from the same institu- 
tion in 1897. She was assistant to the secretary of 
the college from 1888 to 1894, and frotn the latter 
year to the present time (1905) has served in the 
capacity of secretary. Mr. Coes married (fourth) 
Abigail Winch, no issue. 

John Henry Coes, whose name appears at the 
head of this sketch, received his elementary educa- 
tion in the public schools of Worcester, to which 
city his parents removed from Springfield during 
his early lifetime. The knowledge thus acquired 
was supplemented by attendance at Leicester Acad- 
emy and Wiibraham Academy. He began the prac- 
tical duties of life by entering the office of the 
firm of L. & A. G. Coes, manufacturers of wrenches, 
his father and uncle comprising the company, and 
there mastered every detail of the business. When 
the partnership between Loring and Aury Gates Coes 
was dissolved in i86g. the latter formed the firm 
of A. G. Coes & Company, admitting his son John 
Henry to partnership, and continued the manu- 
facture of wrenches in Worcester. This connec- 
tion continued until the death of the senior mem- 
ber of the firm, December 2, 1875, after which the 
business was carried on under the same firm name 
bv John H. Goes and his 'brother, Frederick L. 
Coes. In 1888 the firm of A. G. Coes & Co. and 
that of Loring Coes & Co. were incorporated under 
the laws of Massachusetts with a capitalization of 
$100,000, as the Coes Wrench Company, and its of- 
ficers were : Loring Coes. president : John H. Coes, 
treasurer : Frederick L. Coes, clerk. In 1902 the 
two brothers — John H. and Frederick L. — sold their 
stock and interest in the company to their uncle, 
Loring Goes, and retired from the business. 

John H. Coes is a director of the Worcester 
Tru^t Company and member of its executive com- 
mittee, also vice-president and a member of the 
finance committee of the Mechanics Savings Bank, 
of Worcester, and the duties of these two respon- 
sible positions occupy the greater portion of Mr. 
Coes' business hours. He holds membership in the 
Commonwealth Club. Worcester Club, Tatnuck 
Country Club. Massachusetts Agricultural Club ^ of 
Boston, and the Sons of the Revolution, being 
eligible to membership in the latter named through 
Simon Gates, the fifth in line of descent on the 
maternal side. Mr. Coes was at one time quite 
active in Masonic circles. He is a member of 
Montacute Lodge, Worcester Royal Arch Chapter, 
Hiram Council, and Worcester County Commandery, 
Knights, Templar. Mr. Goes married. February 5, 
1874. Amie Brownell Hadwen. born in Worcester 
Massachusetts. November 4, 1846. daughter of 
Obadiah B. Hadwen (see sketch). They have one 



child. Marv Maynard Coes, born March 14, 1876. 
The family reside at No. 1058 Main street, Wor- 
cesler. 

(JATES FAMILY. Stephen Gates was an emi- 
grant ancestor of John H. Coes, of Worcester. For 
biographical sketch and children of Stephen Gates, 
see elsewhere in this work. This line is traced 
through his. son Siinon. 

(II) Simon Gates, son of Stephen Gates (i), 
was born in 1645, died April 21, 1693, at Brockton, 

Massachusetts. He married Margaret , of 

Cambridge. Massachusetts. They resided in Cam- 
bridge, Lancaster and Brookline, Massachusetts. He 
inherited his father's estate at Cambridge. The chil- 
dren of Simon and Margaret Gates were: I. Abigail, 
born August 14, 1671, died I77i, aged one hundred 
years, at Brighton, Massachusetts; married (first) 
Nathaniel Sparhawk, Jr., who died November 8, 
1734; married (second), 173S, Josiah Mayo, of Rox- 
bury, Massachusetts. 2. Simon, born September i, 
167? died January 2, 1675-76. 3. Simon, born Jan- 
uary 5, 1675-76, died March 10, 173S, aged sixty 
years; married, May 29. 1710, Sarah Wood, daugh- 
ter of John and Lydia Wood, of Marlboro, Massa- 
chusetts; thev settled in Marlboro, where she died 
in 1751. 4. George, born April 6. 1678. died May 
23, 1679. 5. Amos, born 1681, died I7S4; married, 
Mav 19, 1703, Hannah Oldham, daughter of Samuel 
and Hannah (Dana) Oldham, whose birth occurred 
October 10. 1681. 6. Jonathan, born June 22, 1683, 
died February 7. 1755-56, at Worcester, Massachu- 
setts; married Persis Shepard. daughter of John 
and Persis (Pierce) Shepard. of Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, and granddaughter of Thomas and 
Hannah (Ensign) Shepard, of Maiden. Massachu- 
setts. She was born 1691, died July 12, 1776. 7- 
Samuel, born August 11, 1685, said to have settled 
somewhere in Connecticut, but no descendants 
known. 8. Margaret, born August 13. 1689, married 
James How or John How. 

(HI) Simon Gates, son of Simon Gates (2), 
was born January 5, 1675-76, died March 10, 1735. 
aged sixtv years: married. May 29, 1710, Sarah 
Wood, daughter of John and Lydia Wood, of Marl- 
boro, Massachusetts. They settled in Marlboro, 
where she died in 1751. The children of Simon 
and Sarah (Wood) Gates were: I. Simon, born 
December 11. 1710. died April ir, 1777, aged sixty- 
six years: married, 1749, Sarah How, who died 
September 30, 1800, aged seventy-five years. 2. 
Sarah, born October 15, 1712, died at Hubbardston, 
Massachusetts; married. February 3, 1736, Ephraim 
Church, of Rutland. Massachusetts. 3. Susannah, 
born December 19. 1714. died at Hubbardston ; mar- 
ried Captain John Phelps, of Rutland. Massachu- 
setts. 4. Stephen, born August 20, 1718. died October 
f. 177,^, ^Sed fifty-five years, at Rutland; married, 
February 4. 1742-43. Damaris How, born .\ugust 
12, 1725, at Marlboro, Massachusetts, died Decem- 
ber 3, 1809. aged eighty-three years, at Rutland, 
Massachusetts, wdience they removed in 1749. 5. 
Solomon, born May 14, 1721. died March 2, 
T76t, aged forty years, at Worcester; married, 
November 10, 1748. Mary Clark, and resided at 
Worcester. 6. Samuel, born February 28. 1722. mar- 
ried Caroline How; he was a soldier in the revolu- 
tion. 7. Silas, born February 3, 1727. died August 
25, 1703, aged sixtv-six years, at Marlboro: mar- 
ried. May 9. 1754. Elizabeth Bragg, who died March 
20. 1S06. aged seventy-four years. 8. John, born 
January 27. 1729. 

(IV) Simon Gates, son of Simon Gates (3), 
was born December II, 1710, died April 11. 1777; 
married, 1749. Sarah How, who died September 30, 



I02 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



1800, aged seventy-five years. They resided in 
Worcester, Massachusetts. The children of Simon 
and Sarah (How) Gates were: i. Rebecca, born 
in Worcester, 1752, died October 13, 1834; married, 
May S, 1778, David Richards, who died January 29, 
1829, aged seventy-eight years. 2. Simon, Jr., born 
at Worcester, 1752. died February 2, 1849; married 
Sarah Edgerton, daughter of S. N. Edgerton ; she 
died August 19, 1S43, aged eighty-five years. 3. 
Asa, born in Worcester, January 29, 1757, died No- 
vember 21, 1835; married, February 15, 17S6, Fanny 
Field. 4. Sarah, born in Worcester, April 2, 1761, 
died November 21, 1819; married. May 15, 1783, 
John Sargent, who died February 7, 1829. 5. John, 
born 1764, died May 20, 1786. 6. Mary, born 1768, 
died December 24, 1809 ; married William Moore. 

7. Kathcrine, born April 22, 1772, married Phineas 
Jones; he died March 22, 1814, aged sixty-six years. 

8. Levi, born May 2r, 1776, died October 6, 1837, 
buried at Ashland, Ohio : married, 1791, Chloe Sum- 
ner, daughter of Josiah Sumner, born 1769, died 
October 4, 1828. They resided at Charlton. Massa- 
chusetts, and thence went to Shoreham, Vermont. 

(V) Simon Gates, son of Simon Gates (4), was 
born January 6, 1756, in Worcester, Massachusetts. 
He died February 2, 1849, aged ninety-three years, 
at Worcester. He married Sarah, daughter of S. 
N. Edgerton. and her death occurred .August ig, 
1843, aged eighty-five years. He responded to the 
Lexington call to arms in 1775, entered Captain 
Hubbard's company before Boston, and served in 
the battle of Bunker Hill. He also served in Cap- 
tain Stone's company in the battle of Bennington, 
campaign of 1777, also in Captain Cushing's com- 
pany in the fall of 1777- He was a revolutionary war 
pensioner. Mr. Gates was a very domestic man, 
and was never away from home but two or three 
nights in his life except while in the service. He 
died in the same room in the same house in which 
he was born. The children of Simon and Sarah 
(Edgerton) Gates were: i. Olive, born August 

28, 1784, married Hayward, of Mercer, Maine. 

2. Roxalany, born May 10, 1786 ; see forward. 3. 
John, born June 10, 1789, married Letitia Burr. 4. 
Levi, born May ". 1790. died at Claquato, Lewis 
county, Washington ; married Hannah Paine, of 
Worcester, February 20. 1820. 5. Mary, born Octo- 
ber 10 or II, 1792, married Erastus Tucker. Octo- 
ber s. 1819. 6. Sarah, born September, 9. 1794. 7. 
David R.. born March 31, 1799, died at Worcester; 
married (first) Eliza Fessenden, February 11, 1824; 
married (second) Sarah N. Britton, born Novem- 
ber 24, iSog, at Spencer, Massachusetts, died Febru- 
ary 8, 1893. 8. Horatio, born September 4, 1801, 
died 1852: married Fidelia A. Hall. 1825; married 
(second) Hannali Head, born 1799, died 1893. 

(VI y Roxalany or Roxalana Gates, daughter of 
Simon Gates (5), was born May 10, 1786, at Wor- 
cester, Massa'chusetts. She married, October 26, 
1808, Daniel Coes, aforementioned in this narrative 
as the grandfather of John H. Coes, and their chil- 
dren were: I. Sally, born February 22, 1810. 2. 
Loring, born April 22, 1812 ; see Coes Family. 3. 
Albert, born September 29, 1813. 4. .\ury Gates, 
born January 22, 1826, aforementioned as the father 
of John H. Coes. 

PAUL BEAGARY MORGAN. Miles Morgan 
(i). the emigrant ancestor of Charles H. Morgan, 
of Worcester, and his son, Paul Beagary Morgan, 
was born nrobably in 1615 in Llandorflf, Glamorgan 
county, Wales, and removed to Bristol, England, 
a few years before he emigrated to America. He 
came to Boston in April, 1636, with two brothers. 
The eldest, James, settled in New London, Connecti- 



cut ; John went to Virginia and Miles joined the 
colonists and became one of the founders of Spring- 
field, Massachusetts. These colonists were organized 
at Roxbury, Massachusetts, now part of Boston. 
John Morgan is the ancestor of General David Mor- 
gan, of "ranger" fame in the revolution, and of 
famous members of this family in the southern 
states. James Morgan, of Connecticut, also has 
many prominent men among his descendants. 

Miles Morgan drew land for his home lot on 
tlie south side of Ferry Lane. At present the site of 
the original Morgan dwelling house is occupied by 
the repair shop of the Connecticut River Railroad. 
Having prepared his first home. Miles Morgan mar- 
ried, about 1643, Prudence Gilbert. The following 
quaint story of his courtship and marriage is taken 
from the Morgan Genealogy: "On his passage from 
England he formed an acquaintance with a young 
woman who belonged to a family which on their 
arrival settled in Beverly. IMassachusetts. To her 
lie determined to prefer his suit. This he did by 
letter in which he proposed to her to become his 
wife and the sharer of his dubious fortunes in the 
wilderness. To this frank proposition she with 
equal frankness (for coquetry it seems was not then 
the fashion) wrote him an explicit answer and 
avowed her willingness to comply with his wishes. 
Her suitor it appears was resolved to prosecute the 
aflfair like a man of business. On receiving an 
answer so favorable to his inclinations, he imme- 
diately engaged two of his friends and an Indian 
to attend him in his matrimonial expedition and de- 
parted 'with all convenient speed' taking with them 
an old horse for the purpose of conveying the house- 
hold stuff of the intended bride to her future habi- 
tation and their muskets with which they might put 
to flight the 'armies of the aliens' who might per- 
chance molest them in their pilgrimage to and from 
the land of the people of the east. Prosperity at- 
tended the journey and the hymeneal torch was 
kindled on his arrival. The matrimonial contract 
having been satisfied in due form the old pack 
horse received his destined burden, the bridegroom 
and his companions shouldered their muskets and 
thus escorted the bride to Springfield, who walked 
with them on foot the whole distance from Beverly 
to that place, viz., 1.30 miles." 

In 1675, during Kin^ Philip's war, the Morgan 
House was attacked by the Indians, but so bravely 
was it defended by Miles Morgan and his sons that 
the Indians retired after an unsuccessful siege. 
Pcletiah Morgan, one of these sons, was killed in 
this war in the following year at what is now 
Chicopee, Massachusetts. 

Among other prominent descendants of Miles 
and Prudence Morgan are J. Pierpont Morgan and 
bis late father. Junius S. Morgan, the bankers. The 
line of descent is Miles (I). Nathaniel (II), Joseph 
(HI), Captain Joseph (IV), Joseph (V), Junius 
Snencer (VI). J. Pierpont (VII) Morgan. The 
Worcester familv traces its descent from David, 
son of Miles (II). 

The genealogy of the Morgan family has recently 
been traced by George T. Clark, Antiquary, from 
remote Welsh ancestors. He gives sixteen genera- 
tions of Morgan ancestors of Miles Morgan, of 
Springfield, It is so seldom that English and Amer- 
ican genealogies can be so successfully united that 
.American Morgans may well take some satisfaction 
in their Welsh ancestry. 

(I) Cadivor-Fawr, married Elen, daughter and 
heir to Llwch Llawen and had; 

(II) Bleddri, third son, witnessed a Berkerolles 
.grant of Bassalleg to Glastonbury and was probably 
a land owner in those parts. He bore "Argent, 3 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



103 



bulls' heads cabossed sable." The ordinary coat 
of the Morgans has long been "Or, a griffin segreant 
sable," but some branches have used Cadivor and 
others Bleddri. Morgans of Pencoyd bore "Argent, 
a lion rampant gardant sable between two cantons ; 
the dexter, "Or, a griffin segreant sable ;' the sinister, 
'Bleddri.' " The Llantarnam Morgans bore the grif- 
fin on a field argent. The descendants of Ivor 
Howel used Bleddri, but inserted a chevron between 
the Bulls' heads. The Lewises of St. Pierre used 
the Cadivor lion, and the Griffin for a crest. Bleddri 
is said to have married Clydvven, daughter of Grif- 
fith ap Cydrich ap Gwaethfoed-fawr, and had 

(III) Ivor, who married Nest, daughter of Cara- 
doc ap Modoc ap Idnerlh ap Cadwgan ap Elystan 
Gloddrydd, and had 

(IV) Llewelyn, who married Lleici, daughter of 
Griffith ap Beli, and had 

(V) Ivor, who married Tanglwst, daughter of 
Home! Sais ap Arglwydd Rhys. They had 

(VI) Llewelyn Lleia, married Susan, daughter 
of Howel ap Howel Sais, a first cousin. They had 

(VII) Ivor, father of 

(VIII) Llewelyn ap Ivor of Tredegar, Lord of 
St. Clear, married Angharad, daughter of Sir Mor- 
gan .ap Meredith, from the Welsh lords of Caerleon, 
ap Griffith ap Meredith ap Rhys, who bore "Argent, 
a lion rampant sable." Sir Morgan died 1332, when 
Angharad was aged thirty-two years. They had: i. 
Morgan. 2. Ivor Hael, whence Morgan of Gwern-y- 
Cleppa. 3. Philip, whence Lewis of St. Pierre. 

(IX) Morgan, of Tredegar and St. Clear, mar- 
ried Maud, daughter of Rhun ap Grono ap Llwarch, 
Lord of Cibwr. He died before 1384. Issue : 
Llewelyn ; Philip, whence Morgan of Langstone ; 
John, father of Gw-cnllian, married David Goch ap 
David : Christian, married Jevan ap Jenkin Kemeys ; 
Ann, married David Gwilim David, of Rhiwperra; 
Margaret, married Traherne ap Meyric of Merthyr ; 
A daughter married Thomas ap Gw'illim of 
Carnllwyd ; Lienor, married Grono ap Howel 
Bennet. 

(X) Llewelyn ap Morgan of Tredegar and St. 
Clear, living 1387, married Jenet, daughter and heir 
of David-vychan ap David of Rhydodyn. 1384-S7. 
Issue : Jevan ; Christy, married Madoc ap Jevan of 

Gelligaer; , married Roger ap Adam of St. 

Mellon's; , married Madoc of Bassalleg ; 

, married Thomas Llewelyn ; Ann. married 

John ap Jenkin ; , married , of Raglan ; 

. married Builth. 

(XI) Jevan Morgan, 1415-48, married Denise 
or Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas ap Llewelyn- 
vychan of Llan gattog-on-Usk. Issue : John, David, 
1442-4S: Jenkin, 1454. 

(XII) Sir John Morgan, Knight of the Sepul- 
chre. 1448. Stewart of Gwentlloog, married Jenet, 
daughter and co-heir of John ap David Mathew 
of Llandaff. Issue : Morgan ; Thomas, whence 
Morgan of Machen and Tredegar ; John, whence 
a branch ; Lewis. 1491 ; William Morgan, coroner, 
1501. father of John of Newport, died 1541. father 
of William. 1541-1559; Philip, 1491 : Elizabeth, mar- 
ried John Fiennes. Lord Clinton and Say; Jane, 
married William David Powel ; Mary, married 
Thomas Llewelyn-vychan of Rhiwperra ; Isabella, 
married James Kemeys of Began, died 1591. 

(XIII) Thomas Morgan, second son of Sir John 
Morgan, was of Machen ; esquire of the body to 
Henry VII; living 1538; married Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of Roger Vaughan, of Porthaml. Issue : Row- 
land Reynold, whence Morgan of Llanvedw ; John, 
whence Morgan of Bassalleg ; Edmond, whence 
Morgan of Penllwyn-Sarth ; Margaret, married 
(first) John Kemeys, (second) William Edmunds; 



Barbara, married Sir Henry Seymour ; Maud, mar- 
ried John ap Rosser; Jane, married (first) William 
Gunter, (second) Richard ap Jenkins, (third) Will- 
iam Vaughan, of Magor; Constance, married Will- 
iam Jones, of Treowen; Mary, married (first) Ed- 
ward Williams, (second) Richard Herbert; Eliza- 
beth, married Edward James. 

(XIV) Rowland Morgan, of Machen, 1517-77, 
married Blanch, daughter of John Thomas, of 
Llanarth. Settlement, November 11, 1517; sheriff, 
1557- Issue : Thomas ; Henry, whence Morgan of ' 
St. Mellon's; Catherine, married (first) Thomas 
Mathew, (second) Miles Morgan, (third) Henry 
Jones; Ann, married Philip Morgan, of Gwern-y- 
Cleppa ; Mary, married Thomas Lewis, of 
Rhiwperra ; Elizabeth, married Edward Kemeys, of 
Cefn Mably. 

(XV) Thomas Morgan, of Machen and Trede- 
gar and of the Middle Temple, 1567-77; sheriff, 
1581 ; M. P. for county in 1589; will, 1603; mar- 
ried Elizabeth Bodenham, daughter Roger Boden- 
ham. Issue: Sir William; Edward, 1586, married 
Elizabeth Thomas, daughter of Richard Thomas, 
of Bertholley; Sir John, died before 1610, married 
Florence Morgan, daughter and eventual heir of 
William Morgan of the Friars. They had William 
Morgan of the Friars, 1663, mayor of Newport, 
1667, father of Lewis Morgan, died about 1690, 
father of Lewis died 1729, who sold to the Friars. 
He was father of Blanch and Catherine. David 
Morgan, whence a branch ; Blanch, married Edward 
Lewis, of Van; settlement 1585; Catherine, married 
William Herbert, of Coldbrook ; Elizabeth, married 
William Jones, of Abergavenny ; Jane, married 
Rowland Morgan, of Bassalleg; Elizabeth, married 
William Blethvn. of Dynham ; Ann; Margaret, mar- 
ried Henry Williams, of Mathern. 

(XVI) Sir William Morgan, of Tredegar, 
knighted 1633 ; M. P. for the county 1623-25 ; will 
made 1650. proved 1653, sheriff 1612; aged ninety- 
three at death; he received Charles I, at Tredegar 
July 16 and 17, 1645: married (first) Elizabeth 
Winter, daughter of Sir William Winter, of Lidney, 
(second) Bridget Morgan, daughter of Anthony 
Morgan, of Heyford, county Northampton, widow 
of Anthony Morgan, of Llanvihangel Crucorney. 
Is.sue by first wife: Thomas; Edward, of Kilfengan, 
will dated April 4, 1660, proved February, 1661 ; 
married Elizabeth James, daughter and heir of 
Charles James, of Llandewi Rhydderch, had Eliza- 
beth, daughter and heir, married Henry Chambre 
of Court Morgan. William, whence Morgan of 
Rhymny. Rowland of Risca, will dated December 
19, 1660, proved February. 1661 ; married Honora 

and had Colonel William Morgan ;,' buried 

at Bassalleg, October 27, 1679. John of the Temple 
in 1652 ; coel. Mary, married George Lewis, of St. 
Pierre. Blanch, married John Carne, of Ewenny. 
Frances, married Charles Williams, of Llangibby. 
Mary, single, will 1687. Elizabeth married William 
Morgan, of Dderw ; she died 1638, he died 1649. 
Bv Sir William's second wife: Sir Anthony of 
Kilfengan, s. p. His widow was alive in 1673. 
Mary, married Peter Farmer, of London, who died 
1691. They had Margaret, daughter and heir, mar- 
ried John More, who sold Kilfengan in 1707. 

(XVII) Elizabeth Morgan, daughter of Sir Wil- 
liam of Tredegar (16), married William Morgan, 
merchant of Diveru ; went to Bristol, England, in 
1616. Elizabeth died 1638, William died 1648; both 
buried in Bristol (See Great Orphan Book and 
Book of Wills of Bristol). Issue: MILES MOR- 
GAN, born 1616. named perhaps after Miles Mor- 
gan, captain British army, who perished with Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, half brother of Sir Walter 



I04 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Raleigh, who sailed 1576 under a patent "to oc- 
cupy any heathen lands not actually possessed of 
any Christian prince or people." The only other 
Miles I find (than Capt. Miles supra) is Miles 
Morgan or Morgan Miles, son of William Miles 
of Cabalva. 

(XVIII) Miles Morgan was next to Col. Pyn- 
chon the most important and useful of the Spring- 
field Colony. He was made second in command, 
though he was the youngest of the company. He 
was the only pioneer in fact who was less than 
twenty-one years of age when admitted. He was 
a brave and intrepid Indian fighter in the frequent 
conflicts on the frontier. He was a wise counsellor 
and a sturdy tiller of the soil. In civil life Col. 
Pynchon was the grocer and Morgan was the 
butcher. A handsome monument was erected at 
Springfield in 1879 in testimony of the services of 
Miles Morgan in settling the town, governing the 
colony, fighting the Indians in 1675 when Spring- 
field was sacked and burned and many of the little 
colony killed. 

Miles Morgan married Prudence Gilbert 1636. 
Issue: I. Mary, born December 14. 1644. 2. Jona- 
than, born September 16, 1646. ' 3. David, born July 
23, 1648. 4. Peletiah, born May 17, 1650; killed 
by the Indians 1675 ; died unmarried. 5. Isaac, 
born March 12, 1652. 6. Lydia, born February 8, 
1654. 7. Hannah, born February 11, 1656. 8. Mercy, 
born May 18, 1658. Prudence Gilbert Morgan died 
November ' 14, 1660. Miles married February 15, 
1669 (2) Elizabeth Bliss. By her he had issue: 
I. Nathaniel, born June 14, 1671. Miles Morgan 
died May 28, 1699, aged eighty-four years. 

(XIX) David Morgan, son of Miles Morgan 
(18), was born at Springfield, Massachusetts, July 
23, 1648. He married Mary Clark of Springfield, 
January 16, 1672. They lived at Springfield. He 
died May 30, 1731. Issue: i. Peletiah. born March, 
1676. 2. David, born February 18, 1679. 3. John, 
born October 7, 1682. 4. Jonathan, born September 
13, 1685. 5. Mary, born December 24, 1686. 6. 
Benjamin, born May 2, 1695; married Mary Graves, 
June 4, 1718. Issue: i. Benjamin, born November 
26, 1719. 2. Stephen, born May 4, 1722. 3. Aaron, 
born November 7, 1724. 4. Mary, born August 4, 
1727. 

(XX) Deacon David Morgan, son of David 
Morgan (19). was born in Springfield, Massachu- 
setts. Fcljruary 18. 1679. He married Deborah Col- 
ton, daughter of Ephraim Colton, 1703. He died 
September 11, 1760. See Colton family annexed. 
David Morgan and his son Joseph were among the 
original proprietors of Brimfield. Massachusetts, 
drawing respectively grants number 46 and 25 in 
the distribution of land to the first settlers in 1732 
and the family went to Brimfield about that time. 
Descendants of David are still living in the town. 
He was town clerk in 1731. 

The standing of Deacon Morgan's family is 
shown by the report of the seating committee Sep- 
tember 12. 1757, when the widow of Mr. Morgan 
is given a post of honor in the first pew with such 
well known men as John Sherman, Esq.. Captairt 
Leonard Hoar. Mr. Nathan Collins and their wives. 
The daughters of Deacon David Mor.gnn married 
into the Hoar and Sherman families. His children 
were: i. David. 2. Joseph, born August 19, 1705. 
3. Mary, born 1706, married Leonard Hoar, Jr., 
May 6. 1736. 4. Elizabeth, married Phineas Sher- 
man. December 12, 173S, 5. Jonathan, born 1740. 
6. Deborah, married Nathaniel Collins. 1763. 7, 
Mercv. horn 1744. died 174.'^. 8. Isaac, born 1747. 

(XXn Sergeant Joseph Morgan, son of Deacon 
David Morgan (20), was born at Springfield, Au- 



gust 19, 1705, and died January 28, 1798. He was 
a sergeant, m the troops sent from New England, 
at the second seige of Louisburg in 175S, and al- 
though seventy years of age he responded to the 
call April 19, 1775, and went to Lexington, under 
Capt. Sherman and Col. Pynchon. He married 
Margaret Cooley, December 25, 1729. She died 
July 17, 1754. He married (second) Rachel Dada, 
August II, 1759. She died March 27, 1810. He was 
a cabinet maker by trade and his son Joseph con- 
tinued the business after his death. 

Their children were: I. Margaret, born April 
20, 1730, married John Mighell, February 2, 1749. 
2. Joseph, Jr., born April 17, 1733. 3. Mary, born 
February 28, 1735, died 1736. 4. Mary, born June 
iSi '^in, married Capt. Ebenezer Hitchcock, May 
7. 1761. 5. Benjamin, born July 24, 1739. 6. Mir- 
iam, born May 7, 1742. 8. David, born January 25, 
1745. 8. Keziah, born January 26, 1747, married 
Benjamin Cady. December 31, 1767. 9. Aaron, born 
March 16, 1749. 10. Elijah, born May 31, 1758. 
II. Enoch, born August 3, 1763. 

(XXII) Sergeant Aaron Morgan, son of Sergt. 
Joseph (21), and INIargaret Morgan, was born at 
Brimfield, Alassachusetts, March 16, 1749, and died 
there August 30, 1825. He responded to the Lex- 
ington Alarm April 19, 1775, in Capt. Thompson's 
company, Col. Danielson's regiment. He was in 
Gates Army in the north 1777 in Capt. Capen's 
company. Col. Woodbridge's regiment. He had 
other service also to his credit. He was a promi- 
nent man in Brimfield town afifairs. He was moder- 
ator in 1807, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813. 1814, i8rs; he 
was town clerk from 1784 to 1797; selectman in 
1798, 1799, 1800. 1801. 1802, 1803, 1804: assessor 
1775, 1776. 17S0, 1781, 1783. 1785, to 1793.. 1795, 1796, 
1798 to 1804 inclusive. He married Abigail Sher- 
man, November 26, 1772. She died October 23, 
1828. See Sherman family annexed. Their chil- 
dren were : i. Lucy, born January 20, 1774. mar- 
ried James Moore, December 19, 1793. 2. Justin, 
born March 8, 1777. 3. Aaron. Jr.. born December 
6. 1779. 4. Calvin, born May 27. 1782. 5. Thomas 
born April 7. 1788. married Orra Morgan, October 
27. 1816. 6. Sally, born June 30, 1790, married 
Harris Sherman, April 28, 1814. 

(XXIII) Calvin Morgan, son of Sergt. Aaron 
Morgan, was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts. May 

27. 1782. and died June 13, 1832. He married Polly 
Forbush of Grafton, Massachusetts, March 10, 1803, 
she died January 12, 1868. 

Their children were: I. Hiram, born August I, 
1803, died June 29, 1866. 2. Dexter, born June 2, 
1805, died March 17. 1818. 3. Margaret P., born 
September 23, 1S06. married (j. W. Dinsmore, Sep- 
tember 23, 1829. 4. Calvin, Jr.. born April 4. 
1808. married Susannah P. Lane, died October 31, 
1835. 5. Mary Ann, born December 28, 1809, mar- 
ried Joseph B. Parker. October 15. 1833. 6. Abi- 
gail T.. born June 13, 181 1, married Heman S. Jack- 
son, May 29. 1859. 7. Enoch Melvin, born June 2, 
1813. died December 9, 1813. 8. Sarah B., born 
March 26. 1815, married Luther Bigelow, June 11, 
1835, died September 17, 1840. 9. Malvina F., born 
April 12. 1S17, married Andrew J. Copp, July 2, 
1839. died June 27, 1841. 10. Francis Dexter, born 
April 24, 1819, married Elizabeth Phelps, November 
25, 1841, died 1846. II. Harriet N., born September 

28, 182T. 12. Cordelia, born October 20. 1825, died 
February 14. 1842. 

(XXIV) Hiram Morgan, son of Calvin Mor- 
gan (2^,^, was born at Brimfield, Massachusetts, 
.August T, 1803, died June 29, 1866. He married 
Clarissa Lucina Rich, daughter of Dr. Noah Rich. 
Hiram was a mechanic skillful in wood turning. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



lO: 



Children were as follows: l. Charles Hill, born 
January 8, 1831. 2. Francis Henry, born September 
-23. 1833. 3. Hiram Dexter, born July 27, 1836, 
died in infancy. 4. Cyrus Rich, born July 4, i8.;S, 
married Adelaide Fisher. 5. Harriet Eaton, born 
March 27. 1845. died in infancy. 

(XXV) Charles Hill Morgan, son of Hiram 
Morgan (24), was born at Rochester, New York, 
January 8, 1831. His parents moved to Clinton. 
Massachusetts, when he, was an infant. He at- 
tended the Clinton schools and. Lancaster Acaderny. 
At the age of fifteen he began to learn the machin- 
ist's trade in his uncle's shop. He developed a love 
for mechanical drawing and acquired a thorough 
knowledge of mechanics as well as much technical 
skill. In 1852 when he was twenty-one years of 
age he had acquired sufficient knowledge of chem- 
istry to take charge of the dye house of the Clinton 
Mills. Mr. Morgan was for a time draughtsman 
for the Lawrence Machine Company and for Eras- 
tus B. Bigelow. He went to Philadelphia in t86o 
and for a short time was associated in business there 
with his brother. Returning to Worcester in 1864 
he accepted the position of general superintendent 
of the wire mills of Washburn & Moen. where he 
remained for twenty-three years, during eleven of 
which he was a director of the corporation. While 
with the Washburn & Moen Co. he designed the 
first hydraulic elevator introduced in New England. 
He made seven trips to Europe to visit the steel 
and wire mills of England, Belgium, Germany, 
France and Sweden. He studied the new patents, 
read the trade journals and kept his mill well to 
the front in the development of new methods and 
machines. An advance step in the wire business 
was an improvement of the continuous rolling mill 
■designed and constructed in Manchester, England, 
in accordance with the designs of George Bedson. 
This continuous rolling was a great improvement 
 in methods, but production w-as limited by the im- 
perfections of the ordinary hand reel. Mr. Mor- 
gan's first improvement was a reel operated by 
steam power; the second was the invention and 
construction of a continuous train of rolls having 
only horizontal axles. Experience has shown that 
this mill consisting of a series of horizontal rolls 
with intermediate twistings or turning guides be- 
tween the rolls, giving the metal one quarter of a 
turn in its passage from one pair of rolls to the 
next, was far superior to a mill with alternate hori- 
zontal and vertical rolls. Nine years after the build- 
ing of the Bedson mill another mill from new de- 
signs furnished by Mr. Morgan was built on the 
Belgian and continuous plan and was known as 
the Combination mill. In 1886 Mr. Morgan patented 
automatic reels with vertically moving platform. 

Mr. Morgan became consulting engineer for the 
American Wire Company of Cleveland in 1887 and 
introduced new and valuable inventions. In iSSg 
he completed and put in operation at Dollar Bay, 
Michigan, a large copper mill for. the Tamarack 
mine, one of the mines producing the famous lake 
copper. 

Mr. Morgan began the manufacture of rolling 
mill machinery, etc.. in 1888 and three years later 
incorporated the business under the name of The 
Morgan Construction Co. The capital stock of 
the company is $100,000. Mr. Morgan is president 
and his son, Paul B. Morgan, treasurer. The exe- 
cutive ofifice and the mill is at 11 to 21 Lincoln 
street. Worcester. Branch offices are located in 
New York city and Brussels. Belgium. The com- 
pany manufactures rolling mill machipery for steel 
"billets, merchant shapes, rods, cotton ties and barrel 
hoops : also wire drawing and hydraulic machinery. 



A specialty of the company is the equipment of en- 
tire plants from boilers to special devices made to 
order complete. Business has developed steadily 
and a large export trade has been built up. The 
company has valuable patents for machinery used 
in modern mills. 

Chas. H. Morgan is also the president and owner 
to a large extent of the Morgan Spring Company 
which was incorporated in 1881. It is capitalized 
at $700,000. The business developed to its present 
proportions by steady but rapid growth. Mr. Mor- 
gan began the manufacture of springs at the Mor- 
gan mills on Lincoln street. In 1896 the extensive 
plant at Barber's Crossing was constructed and has 
been enlarged to allow for the increase in business. 
This location is ideal for the purposes of the com- 
pany. The works are at the junction of the Fitch- 
bnrg and Nashua Railroads, making shipping facili- 
ties admirable. In 1905 the Morgan Spring Com- 
pany purchased an extensive plant at Strnthers, 
Ohio, where rod rolling and wire making machinery 
has been installed. The company manufactures 
wire rods, the best grade of oil-tempered steel 
wire, also spiral and flat springs of all kinds, many 
special designs being made for agricultural and 
other machinery. There are departments for wire 
drawing, tempering and spring making. 

Mr. Morgan's connection with the Washburn 
Shops of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute gives 
him a high place among the benefactors of that 
institution. In March, 1886, Ichabod Washburn 
made his gift to establish the machine shop and 
working mechanical department of the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute. The idea of Mr. Washburn 
was unique. Mr. Morgan more than any other man 
deserves credit for the successful development of 
the plan made by the founder. The shop is at the 
same time a laboratory and trade school for the 
Institute and a business concern self-supporting. 
Mr. Washburn recommended Mr. Morgan as a suit- 
able trustee knowing his great mechanical skill 
and large experience. Mr. Washburn died before 
the shop was completed. Mr. Morgan was elected 
a trustee of the Institute. March 27, 1886, and at 
the request of the dying founder of the institution 
Mr. Morgan took charge of the construction and 
equipment of the shops. Mr. Morgan at the re- 
quest of Mr. Washburn selected the first superin- 
tendent. Milton P. Higgins, a graduate of the 
Chandler Scientific School at Hanover, New Hamp- 
shire. From the first. Mr. Morgan co-operated with 
Mr. Higgins to set a high standard of efficiency. 
The success of the experiment in technical educa- 
tion has made the Worcester Polytechnic Institute 
famous and its shops are the model for the whole 
country. Mr. Washburn's idea as worked out by 
Mr. Morgan. Mr. Higgins and their associates has 
been a new triumph in American industrial educa- 
tion and progress. 

Mr. Morgan has been an .TCtive memljer of the 
Plymouth Congregational Church and was one of the 
its founders and deacons; he has been director of 
the Y. M. C. A. and member of the Con.eregational 
Ch'ib of Worcester. He was a director of the First 
National Bank. 

He married in 1852. Harriet C. Plympton, of 
Shrewsbury. In 1862 his wife died. He married 
second. .August 4. 186.^. Rebecca A. Beagary, of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

His children were: i. C. Henry Morgan, born 
February i, 1854, married Jessie Bradbury, resides 

in Worcester. 2. Hiram Plympton, born 

— , 1862. died in infancv. 3. Harriet L., born June 
0. 1864. married Dr. Winthrop D. Mitchell, of East 
Orange, New Jersey. (They have one child. Beat- 



io6 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



rice Mitdiell, born June 6, 1891.) 4, Cliarlotte, born 
July 10, 1866, married Frederick M. McFadden of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 5. Paul Beagary, born 
May 7, 1869, married June 15, 1893, Lessie Louise 
Maynard. 6. Ralph Landers, born September 5, 
1872, married Alice Sawyer. 

(XXVI) , Francis Henry Morgan, son of Hiram 
(24), was born September 23, 1833, and died June 
19, 1899. He married Ellen A. Wright who died, 
and he married second Caroline Augusta Smith, 
October i, 1S68. He resided in Worcester, being 
from the time of the founding of Morgan Spring 
Company to the date of his death, the treasurer 
and general manager of that company. His chil- 
dren are: Harry Wallis, born September 26, 1869, 
died August 13, 1870. 2. Mary, Colchester, born 
June 28, 1874. 3. Charles Francis, born June 23, 
1S77. 4. Ray born August 6, 1883, died November 
28, 1888. 

(XXVH) Paul Beagary Morgan, son of Charles 
Hill Morgan (25). and Rebecca A. (Beagary) Mor- 
gan, was born in Worcester, May 7, 1869. He at- 
tended the Worcester schools leaving the high 
school after three years to enter Worcester Acad- 
emy. He graduated from the Academy in 1887 and 
from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1890. He 
completed his education abroad with a year in 
Sweden studying the iron industry, taking a special 
course in metallurgy and chemistry in the Royal 
School of l\line5 at' Stockholm. He had -practical 
experience in the celebrated Munkfors Works of 
LTddehoIm Company. Upon his return he went 
into business with his father and has had in recent 
years a large share in the management and respon- 
sibility for -the business established by his father. 
He is treasurer of the Morgan Spring Company 
and of the Morgan Construction Company, and presi- - 
dent of the Heald Machine Company. 

He has won a reputation among business men 
for his integrity, prudence and common sense. He 
was in 1904 elected a director of the Worcester 
National Bank. He is a trustee of the People's 
Savings Bank and of Memorial Hospital. He has 
accepted the honor and trying duties of the presi- 
dency of the Worcester County Musical Associa- 
tion.' This organization gives the annual Musical 
Festival for which the name of Worcester is cele- 
brated in the musical world. 

Mr. Morgan is a member of the Plymouth Con- 
gregational Church, of the Worcester Y. M. C. A., 
and of the Congregational Club. He is an ex-presi- 
dent of the .Mumni .Vssociation of the Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute, vice-president of the Alumni 
of Worcester Academy. He is interested in public 
affairs, a Republican, an honorary member of George 
H. Ward Post. G. A. R., and a member of the Sons 
of the American Revolution. He is a member of 
the Worcester Club, the Quinsigamond Boat Club, 
the Tatnuck Country Club, the Worcester Automo- 
bile Club, the Youngstown (Ohio) Club and the 
Engineers Club (New York). 

He married Lessie Louise Maynard, daughter 
of William and Mary (Adams) Maynard. June 15, 
1893. at Worcester, Massachusetts. His wife is a 
descendant of the Maynard family of Marlboro, 
for which the town of Maynard, Massachusetts, is 
named. Their children are: i. Philip Maynard, 
born April 13, 1896. 2. Charles Hill, 2d. born Sep- 
tember 19. 1902. 3. Paul Beagary, Jr., born June 
II, 1904. 4. Vincent, born February 2, 1906. 

(I) John Maynard, the emigrant ancestor of 
Mrs. Paul B. Morgan of Worcester, was one of 
the petitioners for the grant of Marlborough, Massa- 
chusetts. He was in Sudbury in 1638 and was one 
of the forty-seven who shared in the division of 



Sudbury meadows in 1639. He was selectman of 
Sudbury. He removed to Marlborough soon after 
the grant in 1657. He married Mary Gates. He 
died December 22, 171 1. His children were: i. 
Elizabeth, born May 26, 1649, died young; 2. Han- 
nah, born September 30, 1653 ; 3. Mary, born August 
3, 1656 ; 4. John, born January 7, 1661, married 
Lydia Ward: 5. Elizabeth, born April 2, 1664; 6. 

Simon, born June 15, 1666, married Hannah 

7. David, born December 21, 1669, married Hannah 

; 8. Zachariah, bdrn October 27, 1672; 9. 

Sarah, born May 15, 16S0, married June 9, 1705, 
Joseph Johnson; 10. Lydia, born August 29, 1682, 
married April 7, 1703, Thomas Haggate ; 11. Joseph, 
born August 27, 1685, married Elizabeth Prue and 
had Benjamin, born May 7, 1721. 

(II) Simon Maynard, son of John Maynard 
(i), was born in Marlborough, June 15, '666, mar- 
ried Hannah " . He died January 19, 1748. 

She died April 5, 1748. Their children were: i. 
Hannah, born June 9, 1694, married April 21, 1714, 
Joseph Crosby ; 2. Simon, born March 4, 1696, rnar- 
ried November 18, 1718, S'arah Church ; 3. Eliza- 
beth, born September 26, 1698, married 1723, Robert 
Horn: 4. Tabitha, born February 2, 1701, died April 
7, 1724; 5. Elisha, born March 20, 1703; 6. Eunice, 
born November 17, 1705, married Nathaniel Falk- 
ner; 7. Ephraim, born October 17, 1707, married 

Sarah and Mary Balcom ; 8. Benjamin, 

born December i, 1709, died 171 1. 

(III) Ephraim Maynard, son of Simon May- 
nard (2), was born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, 

October 17, 1707. He married first Sarah 

who died May 24. 1742: second January 3, 1743, 
Mary Balcom. Their children were: i. Tabitha, 
born July 21. 1738, died May 24, 1742; 2. Ephraim, 
born March 7, 1740, died May 10, 1742; Sarah, born 
November 6. 1743; 4. Ephraim, born August 29, 
1745, married September 14, I773> Eunice Jewell; 

5. Simon, born June 5, 1748, married Silence Priest; . 

6. Joseph, born December 31, 1750, married Novem- 
ber 14, 1777, Lovina Barnes; 7. Benjamin, bora 
March 10, 1753; 8. Eunice, born February 7, 1757. 

(IV) Simon Maynard, son of Ephraim May- 
nard (3), was born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, 
June S, 174S. He married Silence Priest. He died 
November 15, 1818. Their children were: I. Isaac, 
born December 3, 1779, married 1803, Lydia Howe; 
2. Hannah, born December 28, 1782, married Janu- 
ary 31, 1S02, Peace Peters; 3. John Priest, born 
June 2, 1791, married 1812, Betsey Weeks, daughter 
of John Weeks. 

(V) Isaac Maynard, son of Simon Maynard 
(4), was born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, De- 
cember 7, 1779, married in 1803, Lydia Howe, daugh- 
ter of Artemas Howe. She married second. Isaac's 
children were : i. Amory, born February 28, 1804, 
married Mary Priest, daughter Benjamin Priest: 
2. Lydia, born November 16, 1805, married Joel 
Wilkins. 

(VI) Amory Maynard, son of Isaac Maynard 
(5), was born at Marlborough, Massachusetts, Feb- 
ruary 28, 1804. He married Mary Priest, daughter 
of Benjamin Priest of Marlboro. Among their chil- 
dren was William. 

(VII) William Maynard, son of Amory (6), 
Maynard, was born May 6, 1833, at Marlboro. He 
married Mary Adams. Their children were: I. 
Lessie Louise, born June 23, 1S68. 

(VIII) Lessie Louise Maynard. daughter of 
William Maynard (7), was born June 23, 1868. 
She married Paul Beagary Morgan (27). See 
Morgan sketch. 

(XXVIII) Ralph Landers Morgan, son of 
Charles H. Morgan (2-,), was born at Worcester, 




&^z^,^^S^.Z§5> 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



107 



Massachusetts, September 5, 1872. He married, 
October 12, 1897, Alice Sawyer, daughter of Wil- 
ham H. Sawyer, the lumber merchant of Worcester. 
He was educated at Worcester Academy and W. 
P. I. After leaving school he was associated with 
the firm of Flint, Eddy & Co., of New York. He 
was president of the ^lorgan Motor Company, the 
business of which has been discontinued. He was 
for a year manager of the automobile department 
of the American Bicycle Co., at Toledo, Ohio. At 
present he is a consulting engineer, and is interested 
in a number of local and foreign enterprises. He 
is a member of Plymouth Church, Worcester, Quin- 
sigamond Boat Club and Engineers Club of New 
York. 

(XXIX) Charles Francis ^Morgan, son of Fran- 
cis Henry Morgan (26), was born June 23, 1877. 
He married Edith Jeanette Norcross (daughter of 
Orlando W. Norcross), October 5, 1904. He is 
active in the management of Morgan Spring Com- 
pany, holding the oflke of assistant treasurer and 
clerk of the corporation. He is a member of the 
Winter Club. 

THE COLTON FAMILY' from which Paul B. 
Morgan is descended, originally came from Sutton 
Coldfield, Warwick county. England. George Col- 
ton, the emigrant, settled at Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, before 1644. Removed from Hartford. He 
did important service in King Philip's war. He was 
representative to the General Court in i66g, 1671 
and 1677. By his wife Deborah Gardner, of Hart- 
ford, Connecticut, he had Isaac Colton, born Novem- 
ber 21. 1646, died September 3, 1670. 

(II) Isaac Colton; son of George (l), was born 
November 21, 1646, married I\Iary Cooper, daughter 
of Thomas Cooper, June 30, 1670. She was born 
November 15, 1651. She married second Edward 
Stebbins. October 18, 1701 ; she died August 29, 
1742. 

(III) Deborah Colton. daughter of Isaac Col- 
ton (2). married Deacon David Morgan, of 
Springfield. 

COOLEY FAMILY'. (I) Benjamin Cooley of 
Springfield, a proprietor in 1645, was born in Eng- 
land about 1615. married Sarah . He died 

August 17, 1684. She died August 23, 1684. 

(II) Daniel Cooley. son of Benjamin Cooley 
(l), W'as born at Springfield, May 2. 1651, died 
February 9, 1727, married Elizabeth Wolcott, daugh- 
ter of Simon Wolcott, December 8, 1680. See Wol- 
cott sketch. 

(III) Benjamin Cooley, son of Daniel Cooley 
(2), was born October 28, 1681, married January 
31. 170T, Margaret Bliss, daughter of Samuel Bliss, 
Jr.. and wife. Sarah Benjamin. They removed to 
Brimfield, Massachusetts. 

(IV) Margaret Cooley, daughter of Benjamin 
Coolev (3), was born January 30, 1710, married 
Jo=enh Morgan. 

THE SHERMAN FAMILY. (I) Edmund 
Sherman, the emigrant., came from Dedham. Essex 
county, England, and settled at Watertown, Massa- 
chusetts, about 1632. He married Judith Angin, 
1611. 

(II) Rev. John Sherman, son of Edmund Sher- 
man (i), was baptized January 14, 1614. married 
Abigail —  . 

(III) James Sherman, son of Rev. John Sher- 
man (2), was born T645. died March 3, 1718, mar- 
ried May 13, 1680. Mary Walker. 

(IV) Capt. and Dr. John Sherman, son of 
James Sherman (3), was born about 1683, died 
March g, 1772, married Abigail Stone, who was 
born February 13. 1680. 

(V) Thomas Sherman, son of Capt. John Sher- 



man (IV'), was born September 6, 1722, died No- 
vember 22, 1803, married Anna Blodgett, Septem- 
ber 12, 1751. She died December 10, 1808. He was 
in the revolution. 

(VI) Abigail Sherman, daughter of Thomas 
Sherman (V), was born January 11, 1752, married 
Aaron Morgan, November 26, 1772. See . Morgan 

BLODGETT FAMILY. (I) Thomas Blod- 
gett, came from England in 1635, and settled at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, married Susanna . 

(II) Samuel Blodgett, son of Thomas Blodgett 
(l), was born 1633, died July 3, 1687, married about 
December 13, 1655, Ruth Ingleden. 

(III) Thomas Blodgett, son of Samuel Blod- 
gett (2), was born 1660, removed to Lexington, 
Massachusetts, about 1699, married Rebecca Tidd, 
November 11, 1684. 

(IV) Joseph Blodgett, son of Thomas Blodgett 
(3), was born September 17, 1696, married Sarah 
Stone, who was born at Lexington, November 7, 
1700. She died May 6, 1755 ; married second Sarah 
Ingersoll, June 29, 1738. 

(V) Anna Blodgett, daughter of Joseph Blod- 
gett (4), was born April 10, 1824, married Thomas 
Sherman. See Sherman sketch. 

THE TIDD FAMILY. (I) John Tidd em- 
barked May 12, 1637, at Y'armouth, England, aged 
nineteen years, married Mai'garet, who died 1651. . 
He died April 24, 1657. 

(II) John Tidd, Jr., son of John Tidd (i), 
was born in England, married April 14, 1650, Re- 
bekah Wood. 

(III) Rebekah Tidd, daughter of John Tidd (2), 
was born  — , married Thomas Blodgett, No- 
vember II, 1685, 

THE STONE FAMILY. (I) Gregory Stone 
was born in England, 1590, married there 1618, 
Mary Ganda. 

(II) Deacon John Stone, son of Gregory Stone 
(l), was born August 31, 1644, died 1719, married 
Mary Ward, who was born about 1647. She died 
June 10, 1703. 

(III) Abigail Stone, daughter of Deacon John 
Stone (2). was born February 13, 1680, married 
Dr. John Sherman of Springfield, Massachusetts. 

WARD F.A.MILY. (I) William Ward of Sud- 
bury, was representative to General Court in 1644 
and several other years. He was chairman of the 
selectmen. He served in King Philip's war. He 
died at Marlborough, .August 10, 1687; married 
Elizabeth . 

(II) Mary, daughter of William Ward (i), 
married Daniel Stone. See Stone sketch. 

WOLCOTT FAMILY. (I) Henry Wolcott 
was born in 1577, died 1655. He was the son of 
John Wolcott. of Tolland. Somersetshire, England, 
married January 19, 1606, Elizabeth, daughter of 
Thomas Saunders, of Tolland. 

ai) Simon Wolcott, son of Henry Wolcott (i), 
was born September 11, 1624. married second 
Martha Pitkin, sister of William (parents of Roger 
the governor). She married second Daniel Clark, 
died October 13. 1710. 

(HI) Elizabeth Wolcott, daughter of Simon (2) 
and Martha, married December 8, 1680, Daniel 
Cooley. See Cooley sketch. 

HON. W.\LTER H. BLODGET, the present 
mayor of Worcester, comes from a New York 
family. The grandfather. Jesse Blodget, was the 
first male settler in what is now known as Den- 
mark. New York. He was born in 1764 and died 
in 1848. He was a man of great energy and known 
as one of the leading factors of that town for many 



io8 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



years. By occupation he was a farmer. He mar- 
ried and the lady of his choice was the first woman 
to settle in Denmark, New York. They were the 
parents of several children, including among the 
number Harrison, the father of Walter H. Blodget. 
Harrison Blodget was the first male child born in 
Denmark. He was born in 1801 and died in 1899. 
He was educated in the common schools of his 
day and worked in spare hours, assisting his father, 
as best he could. He finally chose law for a pro- 
fession and soon became one of the foremost at- 
torneys of the state. He was active in local and 
state politics, being a staunch Democrat. He be- 
came a member of the general assembly and was in- 
strumental in the passage of several important bills. 
He was later appointed as associate judge of Lewis 
county. New York, filling the position with credit. 
He married Diantha Dewey, of Leyden, New York, 
born October, 1806, and died in 1890. By this 
tmion the following children were born : Philander, 
Irene L., Charles D., Francis A., Florence C, and 
Walter H. 

Walter H. Blodget was born at the old home- 
place erected by his grandfather, in Denmark, New 
York, November 2, 1850. He was educated in the 
common schools and in the Ives Seminary and then 
attended a business college in New York state, where 
he fitted himself for the activities of a business 
career. On finishing his education, he entered a 
small store in his home town, where he clerked for 
a time and later became agent for a warehouse on 
the Black river canal. After following this for 
a time he decided to go into business for himself 
and opened up a sinall store at Lowville, New York, 
in which he dealt in butter, cheese and produce 
generally. Success attended him from the start. 
He remained there until i88t. when he came to 
Worcester and engaged in the produce business. 
He associated with him A. C. Boshart and chose as 
a location the Warren block: at present (1906) is 
located at 65 to yy Park street, under the name of 
Blodget & Boshart. Later on Mr. Boshart retired 
from the firm, selling to Mr. Blodget. It was in 
t8q8 that the firm of W. H. Blodget & Co. was 
formed and incorporated, with Mr. Blodgett as 
president and his son, Walter H., Jr., as vice-presi- 
dent. The firm also opened a large place of busi- 
ness at Boston. Their annual sales are immense. 
In 1904 they were more than one million dollars. 

Soon after arriving in Worcester, Mr. Blodget 
became identified with many business associations 
here and in Boston. He became a member of the 
local board of trade, of which he w-as president two 
years. 1902-03. He served on the railroad committee 
of this body, of which he became chairman, and 
in all their offices proved himself equal to the 
emergencies which came up for speedy action and 
final solution. He is a member of the Fruit and 
Produce Exchange of Boston. He is one of the 
regular speakers of the Farmers' Institute and is 
registered as such in Washington, and vice-presi- 
dent of the Massachusetts state board of trade. 
He also is vice-president of the advisory board of 
the Philadelphia Museum. Politically he diflfers 
from his forefathers and lias ever been a progres- 
sive Republican, and he fully believes in the great 
principles of that political party. He was elected 
to the office of mayor of Worcester in 1903, and 
re-elected in 1904, proving a highly satisfactory 
official, ever guarding the interests of all the people. 
While absorbed in actual business aflfairs and of- 
ficial duties, he forgets not to care for the higher 
and more sacred trusts of life. He is active in 
church work and was one of the organizers of the 
Adams Square Church and has served at the super- 



intendent of the Sabbath school from the first.  He 
is a person of rare judgment. As a speaker, he 
has no little notoriety. As a toast-master at ban- 
quets and public gatherings, he has a remarkable 
tact. His benevolent spirit is manifested toward the 
unfortunate poor and suffering within his com- 
munity. 

In December, 1873, Mr. Blodget was united in 
marriage to Miss Lotta J. Boshard, daughter of 
Garrett Boshard, of New York. She died in 1882. 
By this union one son was born — Walter H., Jr., 
born in New York in 1882. He was educated in 
the schools of the Empire state and Worcester, 
Massachusetts, and is now vice-president of his 
father's company. In 1883 Mr. Blodget, Sr., mar- 
ried Miss Mary F. Spaulding, daughter of M. W. 
and Verrila (Arsbury) Spaulding. Mr. Spaulding 
was a merchant and county clerk of Canton, New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding had nine children. 
Mr. and Mrs. Blodget are the parents of four chil- 
dren as follows: Bertha, born April 20, 1889; 
Chester, born May 2y, 1892 ; Anna D., born July 
24, 1894; Jesse M., born October 16, 1900. Mr. 
Blodget still retains the old homestead at Denmark, 
New York, which is used as the summer home for 
his family. He also has considerable property in- 
terests in Worcester county. 

DICKINSON FAMILY. Eleven centuries ago 
a soldier of fortune made his appearance at the 
court of Halfdan Huilbein, King of Norway. His 
name was Ivar. He had been a shepherd and had 
been captured by the Northmen and carried to sea. 
He drifted into a life of adventure. He became a 
favorite at the Norwegian Court. The King made 
him general of his army and in 725 gave him his 
daughter Eurithea in marriage. He was called 
Prince of Uplands. When the King died the son 
of Ivar became heir to the throne and during his 
minority Ivar was regent. This son, Eystein, 
reigned until 755. He was succeeded by his son, 
Harold Harfager. Rollo, a Prince of this line, 
overran Normandy in 910. His sixth and youngest 
son. Walter, received the castle and town of Caen 
as an inheritance. His great-grandson, Walter de 
Caen, accompanied William, the Norman, to Eng- 
land at the time of the Conquest. To this noble- 
man the line of Dickinsons descended from the first 
American pioneer, Nathaniel, may be traced. 
Nathaniel is the fifteenth in line, as follows: 

(I) Walter de Caenm. later Walter de Kenson. 
taking the name from his manor in Yorkshire. 

(II) Johnne Dykonson. freeholder of Kingston 
MDon Hull. Yorkshire, married, 1260, Margaret Lam- 
bert, died T3t6. 

(Ill") William Dykenson, freeholder as above, 
died 1330. 

(IV") Hugh Dykensonne, freeholder as above, 
died 1376. 

(V) Anthoyne Dickensonne, freeholder as above, 
married. 1376, Catheryne De La Pole : he died 
1396. 

(VI) Richard Dickerson, freeholder as above, 
married, 1300, Margaret Cooper, died I44i- 

(VII) Thomas Dickinson, freeholder as above, 
married. 1470, Margaret Lambert : alderman first 
ward Hull T-143-4: mayor 1444-.=;: died T475. 

(VIII) Hugh Dickinson, freeholder as above, 
married. tj;i. Agnes Swillington : removed 1475 
to TCens(5ii Manor. Yorkshire; died 1.S09. 

(IX) William Dickinson, freeholder of Kenson 
Manor, married. T47.^. Isabel Langton : died 1546. 

(X) John Dickinson, settled in Leeds. York- 
shire, married in 1499. Elizabeth Danby : alderman 
[525-54: died in 1554. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



109 



(Xl) William Dickinson, settled Brindley Hall, 
Staffordshire, married in 1520, Rachel Kinge ; died 
is8o. 

(Xin Richard Dickinson, of Bradley Hall, mar- 
ried, 1540, Elizabeth Bagnall : died 1605. 

(Xill) Thomas Dickinson, clerk in the Ports- 
mouth navy vard, 1567 to 1587, removed to Cam- 
bridge 15S7; married. 1567, Judith Carey; died 1590. 

(XIV) William Dickinson, settled in Ely, Cam- 
bridge, married, 1594, Sarah Stacey, of Ely; died 
1628. 

(XV) Nathaniel Dickinson, son of William 
Dickinson (14), was born in Ely. Cambridge, in 
1600. He married, January, 1630. at East Bergolat, 
Suffolk, Anna Gull, widow of William Gull. They 
came to Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1636 or 1637. 
He was one of the leaders in the colony. He was 
town clerk in 1645, representative to the general 
court in 1646 and 1647. He removed to Hadley, 
Massachusetts, in 1659, and was admitted a free- 
man there in 1661. He was chosen deacon of the 
church and first recorder of the town., He was 
selectman, assessor and town magistrate. He was 
a member of the Hampshire Troop and on the first 
board of trustees of Hopkins Academy. He re- 
sided a few vears at Hatfield. He died at Hadley, 
June 16. 1676. He married (first) in England; 

(second) .^nne , when he went to Hadley. 

The children of Nathaniel and Hannah (Gull) 
Dickinson were: John, born 1630, killed in King 
Philip's war ; Joseph, 1632. killed by Indians, 1675 ; 
Thomas, 1634 ; Anna or Hannah, 1636. married John 
Clary and Enos Kingsley, of Northampton ; Samuel, 
see forward: Obadiah, April 15, 1641 ; Nathaniel, 
.August; 1643: Nehemiah, about 1644; Hezekiah, 
February, 1645-6: Azariah, October 4, 1648, killed in 
swamp fight. August 25. 1675. 

(XVI) Samuel Dickinson, fifth child of Nathan- 
iel Dickinson (15). was born in Hatfield, Massa- 
chusetts, July. 1638. He was admitted a freeman 
in 1690. and served in the war in 1675-6. He died 
November 30. 171 1. aged seventy-three. He mar- 
ried, January 4. 1668. Martha Bridgeman, daughter 
of James Bridgeman, of Springfield and Northamp- 
ton. Massachusetts. She was born November 2, 
1649, and died July 16. 171 1, aged sixty-one years. 
Their children were: Samuel, born August 17, 
l66g; . December 12. 1671 : Nathaniel, Feb- 
ruary 10, 1672: Sarah. November 5, 1675; Azariah, 
February 2. 1681 : Ebenezer. see forward ; Ann, 
December 17, 1683: Joseph, August 3, 1686: Han- 
nah. .\Dril 4. T689. 

(XVin Ebenezer Dickinson, sixth child of 
Samuel Dickinson (16). was born in Hatfield, Feb- 
ruary 2. 1681. He settled there. He married, June 
27. 1706. Hannah Frary. He died March 16, 1730. 
Their children were: Editha. born August 23, 1707: 
Flizabeth, .August 2. 1709: Nathan, see forward; 
Hannah. February 17. 1715: Reuben, August 2. 
1717: Samuel (twin). October 14, 1718; Mary 
(twin). October 14, T718, died unmarried. 1754; 
Ebenezer. January 5, 1724. 

(XVIII) Nathan Dickinson, third child of 
Ebenezer Dickinson (17), was born in Hatfield. 
May 3. 1712. He removed from Hatfield to .Am- 
herst, Massachusetts, an adjoining town, in 1742. 
and died there .August 7, 1796. aged eighty-four. 
He married (first) Thankful Warner; (second) 
Joanner Leonard, of Springfield; (third) Judith 
Hosmer. His children were: Nathan, see for- 
ward; Ebenezer, January 3, 1741 : Irene, July 13, 
T743. died March 28, 1834. aged ninety ; Enos, 
March 28, 1746: Azariah. March 6, 1752: Elihu. 
October 14. 1753: Shelah. September 20. 1755, 
soldier in revolution, died .\pril 30, 1777 : Thankful, 



March 15, 1758; Lois, baptized August S, 1759; 
.Asa, baptized May 10, 1761 ; Levi; Joanna, baptized 
.April 6, 1766. The following children w^ere by the 
second wife: Stephen, baptized July 6, 1770; Judith, 
married Daniel Heath. 

(XIX) Nathan Dickinson, eldest child of Nathan 
Dickinson (18), was born in Hatfield, Massachu- 
setts, October 19. 1835. He was a soldier in the 
revolution. He served in Lieutenant Noah Dickin- 
son's company in 1775 and in Captain Reuben Dick- 
inson's company in 1777-78. He resided in Am- 
herst, Massachusetts, where -he died at the age of 
ninety, August 3, 1825. He married (first), Janu- 
ary 15. 1761, Esther Fowler, who died March 15, 
1803, aged sixty-three. He married (second), March 
19. 1S04. Jerusha Blodgett, widow, who died October 
17. 1S18. Children of Nathan and Esther (Fowler) 
Dickin.'^on, all born in Amherst, were : Timothy, 
born 1761 ; Perez, March 26, 1763; Ezekiel, May 25, 
1765: Esther, May 3, 1767: Esther, December 14, 
1768; Irene, December 30, 1770; Samuel Fowler, see 
forward: Anna. April 15, 1780. 

(XX) Samuel Fowler Dickinson, seventh son of 
Nathan Dickinson (19), was born in Amherst, 
Massachusetts, October 9, 1775. He received his 
early education in that town . He fitted him- 
self for college and entered Dartmouth, from 
which he was graduated in 1795. Upon com- 
pleting his college course he returned to his 
father's home in Amherst and entered the law 
oflSce of Judge Simeon Strong, where he studied 
until he was admitted to the bar. He became 
one of the ablest lawyers in western Massachusetts. 
He was a natural leader of men and quite naturally 
became prominent in politics. He served his district 
in the general court in the house and senate for 
twelve years. He was town clerk of Amherst for 
many years. His public career was brilliant and he 
became well known throughout the state. He was 
an influential Whig leader. Perhaps his greatest 
public service was the part he took as founder of 
Amherst Academy and Amherst College. For the 
college he sacrificed his property, his time and his 
professional opportunities, and he was held in the 
highest regard by the friends and alumni of that 
institution and his memory is cherished there for 
his generous and distinguished service to the col- 
lege. He was for many years the college treasurer. 
He was prominent in the church as well as the state. 
At the age of twenty-one he was elected deacon of 
the Congregational church, to which he belonged, 
and he was a church ofiicer all his active life. In 
1833 he removed from his old home in Am- 
herst to Cumberland, Ohio, where he maintained his 
prominence as a citizen. He practiced law there, but 
became interested in Lane Seminary and acted as 
its steward. Later he filled the office of steward for 
the Western Reserve University. He exercised his 
benevolence here repeatedly in helping deserving boys 
through college. His memory is cherished at West- 
ern Reserve L'niversity with the same affectionate 
regard and honor as at Amherst. He helped both 
institutions in the trying days of their early life. 
He died at Hudson. Ohio. .April 23, 1838. 

He married. March 21. 1802. Lucretia Gunn, born 
October 3, 1775. of Montague. Massachusetts. Their 
children were: I. Edward, born January i. 1803, 
graduate of Yale College, 1823 ; married. May 6, 
1828. Emily Norcross, daughter of Joel Norcross, 
of Monson, Massachusetts ; he was representative 
and senator in the general court of Massachusetts, 
member of the governor's council, congressman ; he 
died in Boston. 2. William, see forward. 3. Lu- 
cretia, born December 16. 1806, married Rev. .Asa 
Bullard. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she 



no 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



died. 4. Mary, born February 10, 1809, died in New 
York city March 31, 1852; married Marie H. New- 
man, of New York. 5. Samuel Fowler, Jr., born 
August 16, 1811, died in Richmond, Virgmia ; his 
home was at Macon, Georgia ; he married in the 
south. 6. Catherine, born February 17, 1814, died in 
New York city ; married Artematus Sweetser, son 
of Joseph Sweetser, of New York. 7. Timothy, born 
March 11, 1S16. died in Gritifin, Georgia; married 
January 10, 1838, Hannali Dickinson, daughter of 
Ezekiel Dickinson. 8. Frederick, born August 13, 
1818 (or August 31, 1819, Hadley History), gradu- 
ate of Amherst College, 1837 ; died in Billerica, 
Massachusetts; married, February 17, 1846, Mary 
Richardson, of Billerica, leaving three sons. g. 
Elizabeth, born May 29, 1823, died in Worcester ; 
married Augustus N. Currier, and had three chil- 
dren. 

(XXI) William Dickinson, second child of Sam- 
uel Fowler Dickinson (20), was born in Amherst, 
INIassachusetts, September 7, 1804. He attended the 
Amherst district schools and Amherst Academy until 
fifteen years of age. His education was shaped to 
fit him for a business career. He went to work first 
as a clerk in a dry goods store in Boston, where he 
remained several years and learned the essentials of 
business. He came to Worcester and worked in 
the grocery store of Mr. Buttnan in the old Brinley 
block on the corner of Main and Elm streets. After 
some time in this business he started in business 
for himself in the manufacture of paper at Hard- 
wick, Massachusetts. After a few years he sold out 
his mill and returned to Worcester, in 1836, and was 
elected cashier of the Central National Bank, then 
the Central Bank, and since 1903 part of the Worces- 
ter Trust Company. He filled the position of cashier 
with signal ability, and after fourteen years in that 
office resigiied to become the treasurer of the State 
Mutual Life Assurance Company. He was well 
fitted for the great trust and responsibility of this 
position. It proved congenial to him and he re- 
mained in it for nearly forty years. He held a promi- 
nent position in the financial life of Worcester for 
many years. He was treasurer also of the Merchants' 
and Farmers' Insurance Company for about forty 
years. He was a director in the Quinsigamond 
Bank, later the Quinsigamond National Bank, 
merged in 1905 with the Worcester Trust Company. 
He was also director in the Providence & Worcester 
Railroad, now leased by the New York, New Ha- 
ven & Hartford Railroad Company. 

In 1863 Mr. Dickinson began the manufacture of 
paper making machinery, with others, and was inter- 
ested in this business for eight years. He subse- 
quently manufactured felt, a business in which his 
son, Samuel F. Dickinson, was interested with him. 
The factory was in a large block which he built on 
Foster street. 

Mr. Dickinson was a man of unusual business 
ability. He took advantage of his opportunities and 
made a large fortune for his day. He invested 
largely in real estate. He was the owner of the 
Dickinson Block and many other valuable parcels 
of real estate in the city and county. He was always 
interested in pulilic affairs, especially in municipal 
matters. He was originally a member of the Whig 
party, but like a large majority of that party turned 
to the Republican party when the Whig party was 
dissolved. He was never a strong partisan, however. 
He served the city for several years in the common 
council and in the board of aldermen. He was nomi- 
nated for mayor against Charles B. Pratt, the Demo- 
cratic nominee, but failed of election. He was a 
member of the school board for three years. He 
was the donor of the bell on the Walnut street high 



school and also of the fountains in front of the 
school buildings. He was a director of the Free 
Public Library and member of the Worcester So- 
ciety of Antiquity. Although not a college graduate 
he was always, like his father, a liberal supporter 
of colleges and institutions of learning and pro- 
foundly interested in the public schools and educa- 
tional matters. He was appointed by Governor 
Benjamin F. Butler, of whom Mr. Dickinson was a 
warm admirer, on the board of trustees of the State 
Lunatic Hospital at Worcester. He was an attend- 
ant at Union Congregational Church. 

Mr. Dickinson married (first) October 31, 1831, 
at Andover, Massachusetts, Eliza Hawley, of And- 
over, Massachusetts. He married (second) October 
26, 1852, Mary Louisa Whittier, of Andover, daugh- 
ter of Noah and Hannah (Hawley) Whittier, of 
.•\ndover. Mr. Whittier was a department superin- 
tendent of railroad bridges and road bed. He was 
captain of the Andover militia company. The only 
child of William and Eliza (Hawley) Dickinson 
was William Hawley, born in Hardwick, October 
22, 1832, deceased; married Ellen Bike, of New 
York city. Children of William and Mary Louisa 
(Whittier) Dickinson were; Helen Whittier, born 
in Worcester, March 5. 1855, married Thomas L. 
Shields, of Sewickley, Pennsylvania ; they have two 
children : William Dickinson, a student in Cornell 
University, and Mary Whittier ; Samuel F"o\vler, 
born in Worcester, March 14, 1857, married Nellie 
Goodnow,- of Worcester ; George Stuart, born in 
Worcester, October 22, 1863, married Mabel Mar- 
shall, daughter of Frank Marshall, of Worcester; he 
is a graduate of Yale University. 

GILBERT JONES RUGG, for many years 
prominently identified with the manufacturing inter- 
ests of the .city of Worcester, and who has served 
the community usefully in various responsible posi- 
tions of a public nature, is a descendant of one of 
the first settlers of Lancaster, Massachusetts. The 
immigrant ancestor and founder of his family in 
America was John Rugg, who came from Sonierby, 
England, landing March 11, 1632. His wife was the 
ill-fated Hannah Prescott, who was cruelly killed 
by the Indians, September 11, 1696. She was a 
daughter of John Prescott, the first settler at Lan- 
caster, Massachusetts. To John and Hannah (Pres- 
cott ) Rugg were born eleven children, all of whom 
settled in Lancaster and became the ancestors of 
various branches of the Prescott family, now widely 
dispersed throughout the LInited States. John Rugg 
died in Lancaster. November 24, 1655. Descended 
from him was Abel Rugg, who died February 14, 
1843, aged ninety-two years, and whose wife, Cath- 
erine Frost, died November 2, 1843, the same year 
with her husband, at the age of eighty-six years. 
They were the parents of Abel Warner Rugg, born 
March 17, 1797. He married Hannah Jones, and 
they were the parents of eight children. 

Gilbert Jones Rugg, son of Abel Warner and 
Hannah (Jones) Rugg, was born in Lancaster, 
Massachusetts, March 27, 1836. He was reared upon 
the parental farm, and was early habituated to in- 
dustry, frugality and perseverance — traits which 
were the strongest characteristics of the sturdy 
people of that day. He received a practical educa- 
tion in the neighborhood schools, common and pri- 
vate, his school studies concluding with his seven- 
teenth year, when he went to Worcester to pro- 
cure employment and learn a trade, purposes which 
he pursued with all the ardor of youth and the wise 
judgment of mature years, not only laboring indus- 
triously to master his chosen calling, but at the same 
time improving his mind through carefully chosen 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



1 1 1 



books and intercourse with persons of broad 
knowledge and wide experience. At the early age of 
seventeen he became an apprentice in the machine 
shops of Willard Williams & Co., with whom he 
remained after the expiration of his term of service, 
eight years in all, and only leaving his employers to 
accept the foremanship of the Ball & Williams man- 
ufactory of planers and other wood-working ma- 
chinery, a position for which he was eminently 
qualified. With well established reputation for skill 
as a mechanic and business qualifications of a high 
order, in i!S()4. he entered into partnership with Luke 
B. Witherby and Seneca Merrill Richardson for the 
manufacture of wood-working machinery, and cre- 
ated an establishment which for a third of a cen- 
tury has been one of the conspicuous industrial insti- 
tutions of the city of Worcester. For thirty years 
the business was conducted under the firm name of 
Witherby, Rugg & Richardson. After the death of 
his partners Mr. Rugg procured (in 1901) the in- 
corporation of the business under the title of the 
Witherby, Rugg & Richardson Company, thus per- 
petuating the names of those with whom he had 
been most pleasantly associated during a long and 
peculiarly useful period. Mr. Rugg became president 
of the corporation, and continued to act in that 
■capacity until March i, 1903, when he made a sale 
of his stock to the Hobbs Manufacturing Company. 

While giving close attention to the affairs of the 
•company before referred to — watching with pains- 
taking care the practical operations of the works as 
well as the office affairs, and keeping constantly in 
touch with the manufacturing world with constantly 
developing business as a result — Mr. Rugg at the 
.same time gave careful and intelligent interests to 
many concerns of a public nature, and contributive 
to the advantage of the community at large. As 
vice-president of the Worcester Five Cents Savings 
Bank and a member of its investing committee he 
rendered service of a peculiarly useful nature. In 
1871 he was elected a member of the Worcester 
board of aldermen, for a term of two years; 
-was made a member of the common council of 
1875-76; and again was elected to the board of 
aldermen in 1885. In the latter period he rendered 
exceptionally meritorious service on the city high- 
way committee, and in all his official conduct ac- 
quitted himself most usefully and with conscientious 
devotion to the trusts committed to him. At the 
election in November, 1904, he was elected a repre- 
sentative to the general court, and in that body 
served efficiently upon the street railway committee. 
Aside from official relations he has always borne 
a full share in all movements contributing to the 
interests of the city, whether in material, moral or 
educational lines. He is affiliated With various 
Masonic bodies — Morning Star Lodge, A. F. and 
A. M. ; Eureka Chapter, R. A. M. ; Hiram Council, 
R. and S. M.; and Worcester Commanderv. K. T. 

Mr. Rugg married Miss Susan M. Earle, who 
■died in 1896. He married (second) Celia A. Will- 
iams, widow of Beman A. Lovell, of Worcester. 
His children were by his first marriage; I. Florence 
E. Rugg, born April 24, 1865. married Robert A. 
Mason, of Worcester. 2. Clara Emily Rugg, born 
August 10, 1871, died in 1896; married Charles A. 
Rogers, and they had one child. Hazel R. 3. 
Alice Gertrude Rugg, born November 24, 1873, mar- 
ried Irvin W. Howard, of a prominent Worcester 
family. Mt. Rugg resides at 809 Main street, Wor- 
cester, where has been his home since 1871. when 
lie first occupied it. 

ELISHA DEWEY BUFFINGTON. Thomas 
Buffington (i), said to be from Scotland, came to 



America soon after 1650 probably, and settled at 
Salem, where he married Sarah Southwick, Decem- 
ber 30, 1671. As he married the daughter of a 
Quaker and the granddaughter of one, it is likely 
that he led a very quiet life at Salem on his farm. 
He was not in public life or in military companies, 
and seems to have escaped persecution and publicity 
as well. His wife, Sarah Southwick, was daugh- 
ter of John and Sarah Southwick. Her mother 
was the widow of Samuel Tidd. The father of John 
Southwick was Lawrence Southwick, of Salem. 
Lawrence Southwick was a glassman, proprietor of 
Salem. He was admitted a freeman September 6, 
1639. His wife Cassandra was received in the 
church at Salem 1639, and Elizabeth Southwick 
September i, 1650. They were Quakers. His will, 
dated August 10, 1659, at the house of Nathaniel 
Sylvester, at Shelter Island, proved in Essex court, 
November 29, 1660, mentions sons Daniel Southwick 
and John Burnell ; daughters. Provided Southwick 
and Mary, wife of Henry Traske ; Deborah and 
Josiah Southwick; Ann Potter ; Henry Traske's chil- 
dren — Mary, Sarah and Hannah; Samuel (born 
February 19, 1858), and Sarah, children of John 
Southwick, son deceased probably before 1659. 

Besides Thomas Buffington there was a John 
Buffington in Salem about the same time that 
Thomas first appears in the records. There seems 
to be no record of any descendants, nor of his re- 
lationship to Thomas. The name is more coimnonly 
spelled by the descendants of Thomas Buffington 
without the "g," but Mr. Buffington of Worcester 
preferred this spelling. The name was found some- 
times in the records spelled Bovington. The Com- 
moners' Record recently published showed Thomas 
Buffington, Sr., a landowner 1702 and as late as 
1723. when, if living he must have been seventy-five 
and perhaps older. Savage gives three children, but 
it is probable that the third is a child of his son's. 
(See Abigail, born July 25, 1695, under Thomas 
Buffington (2). Thomas and Benjamin are un- 
questionably his sons. Joseph Buffington, whose 
son Joseph married at Swansea in 1734, was prob- 
ably another son. Children of Thomas and Sarah 
(Southwick) Buffington: i. Thomas, born in Salem 
March i, 1672 ; married Hannah Ross there, and had 
a family in Salem, is probably the ancestor of the 
Salem branch of the family, many of whom were 
interested in the shipping business in Salem. His 
children were : Abigail, born in Salem July 25, 
169s (Savage makes her daughter of Thomas, Sr. ) : 
Hannah, born in Salem May 11, 1701, married 
Eleazer Pope, who died August 2, 1734, leaving son 
Stephen and others; James (?), perhaps father of 
Captain Zadock Buffington, prominent in Salem 
many years, incorporator of Acqueduct, 1798: Mary 
(?), baptized an adult in Salem, March 31, 1728. 
2. Benjamin, see forward. 3. Joseph ( ?), had son 
Joseph who married at Swansea, Abigail, son of 
Samuel and Martha Shearman, December 11, 1734. 
James Buffington, who with his wife Elizabeth 
joined the Congregational church at Salem, was 
probably the James, son of Thomas Bufiington (2) 
mentioned above. His children : Betty, Mary, Han- 
nah and James, all baptized when their parents 
were by Rev. Benjamin Prescott, at the church 
now of" South Dan vers,, July 27, 1740. They prob- 
ably had been Quakers until then. 

(II) Benjamin Buffington, son of Thomas Buf- 
fington (l), born July 24, 1675, at Salem; married 

 Hannah • . They were Quakers, and the 

records indicate that he removed soon after mar- 
riage about 1700 to Swansea, where the Quakers and 
Baptists persecuted elsewhere lived peaceably side 
by side. The family tradition states that some fifty 



1 1. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



families from Salem went to Swansea and bought 
titles to their lands from the Indians, as was their 
custom, in addition to getting the grant from the 
government. Benjamin Buffington had a deed, 
which is now in possession of the family, and shows 

he bought three hundred acres of land of 

Marcy, who was the only one of the settlers not a 
Quaker. The homestead has been in the possession 
of the Buffington family about two hundred years. 
"The Buffingtons have all been Quakers down to 
E. D. Buffington of Worcester," writes a member 
of the family, "and he w'as a thorough Quaker in 
principle, although a few years before his death he 
joined the Unitarian church, to which his wife 
belonged." The family records indicate that Ben- 
jamin Buffington, the settler at Swansea, had seven 
children. From the records of Salem, Savage's Dic- 
tionary, and the more recently published Vital 
Records of Rhode Island, in which the records of 
the Friends' church at Swansea are given, partial 
records of six have been discovered. The records 
of William Buffington, the son from whom Elisha 
D. Buffington is descended, are preserved in his old 
homestead at Swansea, and have been copied for use 
here. Children of Benjamin and Hannah: I. Ben- 
jamin, born Salem, May 9, 1699. probably died 
young (Savage mentions two others not named, 
presumably born in Salem. 2. Benjamin, born April 
9, 1701, died June g, 1760, at Swansea, Massachu- 
setts, married Isabel, daughter of Joseph and Sarah 
Chase (given in another Rhode Island record as 
daughter of Eben and Mary Chase) ; she was born 
July 6, 1705. at Swansea, and died June 6. 1791 ; 
both buried in the Friends' yard at Swansea; their 
children: Benjamin, Moses, Stephen, Elizabeth, 
Hannah. 3. William, see forward. 4. Esther, born 
in Swansea probably, married Stephen Chase (or 
Chace), son of Joseph and Sarah, November 11, 
1728. 5. Hannah, married Silas Chase, December 
20, 1733. 6. Jonathan, married Sarah, daughter of 
James and Martha Luther, April 12, 1735. 

(III) William Buffington, son of Benjamin Buf- 
fington (2), born probably in Swansea, Massachu- 
setts, possibly Salem, fifth day of week, October 9, 
1703 ; married Susanna, daughter of Samuel and 
Sarah Chase, all of Swansea, July 25, 1726. Susanna 
was born fifth day of week, April 7, 1704. They had 
nine children born at Swansea : i. William, born 
December 20. 1726, third day of week; married 
Phebe, daughter of James and ^lartha Luther, Feb- 
ruary 5, 1746-7. 2. Elizabeth, born February 9, 1729, 
first day of week, married Ezekiel Chase. 3. 
Susanna, born June 9, 1731, fourth day of week, 
married William Luther, June 16, 1748. 4. Sarah, 
born May i, 1735, fifth day. 5. Phebe, born May 
29, 1739, first day. 6. Samuel, see forward. 7. 
Hannah, born March 5,- 1741, seventh day. 8. 
Martha, born September 22, 1744, first day of 
week. 9. Benjamin, born September 7, 1747, second 

day of week; married Hannah ; had son 

William, married Mary Lawton. Tilarch 11, 1770. 

(IV) Samuel Buffington, son of William Buf- 
fington (3), born Swansea, Massachusetts, July 26, 

1740; married , born March 13, 

1739. died February 2, 1809. They settled on the 
homestead at Swansea. Their children: i. Elisha, 
see forward. 2. Samuel, born about November, 
1770; died February 16, 1816, aged forty-five years, 
four months. 3. Susanna, born October 23, 1773, 
died July 30, 1827, aged fifty-three years, nine months 
and seven days. 4. Elizabeth, born 1775, died April 
7, 1807. 

(V) Elisha Buffington, son of Samuel Buffing- 
ton (4), born Sw-ansea, June 8, 1767, died April 17, 
1858, aged ninety years, ten months and eleven days; 



married Sara Chase, born July 19, 1762, daughter of 
John Chase, who died March 2T, 1786, aged sixty- 
five years, three months, and whose wife died May 
19, 1805, aged seventy-eight years, three months. Sara 
died December 13, 1841, aged seventy-nine years, 
five months. Peace Chase, her sister, died Novem- 
ber 27, 1788, aged thirty-nine years, six months. 
Jonathan Chase, her brother, died July 25, 1824, 
about seventy-eight years old. Alartha, her sister, 
died March 15, 1826, aged seventy-two years, twelve 
days. Children of Elisha and Sara (Chase) Buf- 
fington: I. Susanna, born INIarch 13, 1794, died 
April 8, 1818. 2. Martha, born October 27, 1795, 
married Peleg Gardner; she died April 19, 1842. 
3. John, born April 16, 1798, died June 28, 1816, in 
Havana, Cuba. 4. Frances, born December 10, 1800. 
5. Phebe, born January 7, 1803. 6. Samuel, see for- 
ward. 

(VI) Samuel Buffington, son of Elisha Buf- 
fington (5), was born in Swansea, Massachusetts, on 
the old homestead there October 3, i8c6. He was a 
man of influence and a Quaker. He carried on the 
farm. He married Eliza Ann Mason, born June 7, 
1810, died.1881. He died October 26, 1871. Their 
children were: John H., born August 13, 1829; 
Sarah E., born February 3, 1834, died July 30, 1835 ; 
Elisha Dewey, born in Swansea, November 4, 1836 ; 
Samuel L., born October 7, 1839, lives on the old 
homestead, married Augusta Wood, and their chil- 
dren are : Mabel, Raymond W., Julia S. Durand, 
Elisha L., Elizabeth, Paul, Carl, all living on the old 
homestead ; Frank Benton, born January 9, 1842, 
died April 14. 1855. 

(VII) Elisha Dewey Buffington, son of Samuel 
(6), was born in Swansea, Jilassachusetts, Novem- 
ber 4, 1836. He was brought up on the old Buf- 
fington homestead which has been in the family 
from the time of King Philip, of whom it was bought. 

Elisha Buffington when a boy attended school at 
Warren. Rhode Island, in the winter, and worked 
on his father's farm in the summer. At the age of 
eighteen, in 1854, he went to California, by way of 
the Isthmus. He stayed in California, but a short 
time, and then returned by way of Lake Nicaragua. 
For a short time he taught school in Lansing, Michi- 
gan. Afterward he walked from Michigan to 
Pike's Peak and back. Although the party had a 
wagon and perhaps some horses, there were always 
too many sick to admit of the well ones riding. He 
returned to ^lassachusetts and entered a druggist's 
shop in Fall River, where he learned the business, 
which he found congenial, and in which he was to 
achieve success. He started for himself in Wor- 
cester in 1S62, buying the drug store of William H. 
Goulding, where Buffington's store is at present. 
Very soon after he started, he added the manu- 
facture of homoeopathic remedies, and later the 
wholesale department, which soon became the most 
important part of the business. When the Day build- 
ing was burned the store was located in the Flagg 
building, the next block, but was removed to the 
new Day building as soon as it was completed. Soon 
afterward the business was incorporated as the Buf- 
fington Pharmacy Company, by whom it has been 
carried on since his death. The original officers of 
the company were Mr. Buffington and some of his 
clerks in the store. 

Mr. Buffington was always an enthusiastic sports- 
man and traveler. In 1893 he was appointed a mem- 
ber of the Massachusetts State Fish and Game Com- 
mission, and was very gjctive in propagating and 
preserving fish and game, not only in Worcester 
county but throughout the state. He was a member 
of the Oquosic Angling Club, composed of enthu- 
siastic and regular anglers in the Rangeley Lakes. 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



II' 



He was practically the founder of the hatchery of 
the Fish Conuiussion at Wilkinsville, and had an 
earnest desire to have Lake Quinsigamond properly 
stocked with fish. He was serving his third term 
on the Fish and Qanie Commission at the time 
of his death. He had a taste for travel and means 
to gratify it, made many trips abroad, and brought 
home many artistic and interesting souvenirs of his 
travels. His house is tilled with treasures that he 
collected when abroad. He was a liberal contributor 
to the Worcester Art JNluseum Corporation, of 
which he was a member : and was a member of the 
Society of Antiquity, the Home Market Club of 
Boston, the Tatnuck Country Club, the Worcester 
Club, and the Commonwealth Club. He was a 
director of the Worcester Safe Deposit and Trust 
Company. He attended the First Unitarian Church. 
In politics he was a stanch Republican. His grand- 
father on his mother's side was Squire Mason, who 
was a mtmber of Governor Lincoln's staff when it 
contained but three members. Mr. Butfington died 
November 19, igoo, after a short illness at his home, 
33 Chestnut street. He married, November 4, 1867, 
Charlotte Faton Walker, daughter of Benjamin and 
Charlotte (Eaton) Walker. Her father was born in 
Greenfield, jMassachusetts, but lived most of his life 
in Worcester. Her mother belonged to the Eaton 
family, one of the best of the old Worcester fam- 
ilies ; her grandfather was Nathaniel Eaton. Mr. 
Bufiington had no children. 

There could be no better and more appreciative 
tribute to the character of Mr. Buffington than that 
sent to the editor of the Worcester Spy by Colonel 
E. B. Stoddard, one of his dearest friends, who 
has himself passed away since then. It was pub- 
lished November 20, 1900, as follows : 

"He belonged distinctly to that class of men, 
who, without early advantages of education, have 
by their own native intelligence and energy made 
their way to recognized positions of prominence and 
influence in the community. Mr. Buffington began 
at the bottom of the ladder, so far as worldly ad- 
vantages are concerned, but was not destined to stay 
there. He was gifted with rare common sense and 
quick insight, and easily took in the essential con- 
ditions of any situation. Success was no accident 
with him. He saw the path to it, and followed it 
with the necessary self-denial and persistence to 
accomplish his object. Whether in the accumula- 
tion of property or the keeping of it by judicious 
investment, his judgment was always of the sound- 
est. But though he thus acquired a large compe- 
tence, he was by no means a mere money getter. 
He knew not only how to get it, but how to spend 
it. He always looked upon money as a means, not 
as an end. He had a large range of interests, and 
was constantly engaged in making investigations into 
many subjects. His knowledge of nature, of plants 
and animals especially, was wide and accurate. Per- 
haps no man in this community had a better com- 
mand of everything relating to game, not only 
the haunts and habits, but the game laws and usages 
and the best method of propagation and protection. 
He had also a genuine interest in art, not merely 
of American and European art and artists, but 
various forms of art in the East, where he traveled 
extensively and observed intelligently. His large 
collection contains not only pictures of unusual 
merit and high value, but also tapestries, ceramics 
and other objects of rare excellence. His taste in 
this direction was fully shared and greatly assisted 
by his accomplished wife. Even in his recreations, 
as whist and chess, he was not content with any 
superficial practice of the game, but always wanted 
to go to the bottom of it and find its underlying 
8 



mathematical principles. Above all, Mr. Buffington 
was a steadfast friend and genial companion, and 
it is his cheerful, loyal and affectionate disposition 
that will be longest remembered by those who knew 
him best." 

THEODORE P. BROWN. James Brown (i) 
was the emigrant ancestor of Theodore P. Brown, 
of Worcester, Massachusetts, the manufacturer of 
the Simplex Piano Player. He was born in Scot- 
land about 1720-30. There is a tradition in the 
family that he was wealthy, having with him a chest 
of gold. Owing to a storm or shipwreck the gold 
was lost. Besides the gold it is said he had twenty 
fine linen shirts that were also lost on the journey 
over. He was a tailor by trade. He married Han- 
nah Blanchard, of Dunstable, Massachusetts, and 
their descendants have been numerous in the vicinity. 
Dunstable is now Nashua, New Hampshire. The 
Blanchards were among the pioneers there. Thomas 
Blanchard, her emigrant ancestor, came to America 
from the vicinity of Andover. England, in the ship 
"Jonathan," in 1639. He settled first at Braintree. 
His son George was with him. He bought of Rev. 
John Wilson, February 12, 1650-1, house and land in 
the south part of 2^Ialden, Massachusetts. (Pope 
says he came from Penton. Hants, England.) He 
married first in England. His wife died there. He 
married (second) Agenes (Bent) Barnes, widow, a 
sister of John Bent. She died on the passage over. 

He married (third) Mary . He died May 

21, 1654. His will is dated May 16, and was proved 
June 20, 1654. He made bequests to his wife Mary ; 
to children George, Thomas, Samuel, Nathaniel ; to 
grandson Joseph, and to the church at Maiden. He 
provided that Benjamin Thompson should be fitted 
for the University (Harvard) if his parents con- 
sent. Benjamin was son of Deacon John Blanchard. 
Benjamin does not appear in the list of Harvard 
graduates, however. His estate was administered 
by his widow, appointed June 3, 1656. 

(II) Deacon John Blanchard, son of Thomas 
Blanchard, the emigrant, was one of the pioneers 
at Dunstable, Massachusetts, now Nashua, New 
Hamnshire. He was admitted a freeman in 1649. 
He was one of the founders of the Dunstable Church 
in 1685. Children were : Joseph ; Thomas ; Hannah, 
born January 6, 1659; Benjamin; James; Sarah; 
Mary ; Nathaniel. 

(HI) Thomas Blanchard, son of Deacon John 
Blanchard, and grandson of Thomas Blanchard, the 
emigrant, was born about 1670 and must have been 
a young child when his father went to Dunstable. 

He married Tabitha . She died November 

29, 1696. He married (second) Ruth Adams, of 
Chelmsford. Massachusetts, October 4, 1698. He 
died March 9, 1727. In the possession of Mrs. 
(Tharles E. Wheelock, 8 Cottage street, Worcester, 
is a deed from Thomas to his son Thomas, dated 
1721, of land in Dunstable. Children of Thomas 
and Tabitha Blanchard were : Abigail, born May 5, 
1694; John, ;\Iay 20, 1696. Children of Thomas and 
Ruth (Adams) Blanchard were: Thomas (see for- 
ward) ; William, born 1701 ; Ruth, April i, 1703. 

(IV) Thomas Blanchard, son of Thomas Blanch- 
ard, and grandson of Deacon John Blanchard, of 
Dunstable, was born August 12, 1699. Tie served 
in the Indian wars and was taken prisoner in Sep- 
tember, 1724. He was a prominent man in Dunstable, 
and held various town offices. Mrs. Wheelock has 
the original tax warrant for the year 1738, for the 
old town of Dunstable, issued to Thomas Blanchard 
as collector of taxes. It shows the results of his 
work. It contains a full list of the taxpayers of 
the town. Joseph Blanchard, son of Captain Jo- 



114 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



seph Blanchard, who was uncle of Thomas Blanch- 
ard, heads the list. 

Hannah Blanchard, born about 1740, daughti-r of 
Thomas, married James Brown, the emigrant. He 
died in 1778. A copy of his will, dated October 10, 
1778, is owned by Mrs. Wheelock. It is a certified 
copy made soon after the will was proved in the 
Nashua court. It should be noted that James Brown, 
of Dunstable, was a lieutenant in the battle of 
Bunker Hill, according to the history of Dunstable, 
and no other James Brown of the right age and de- 
scription is to be found. 

The children of James and Hannah (Blanchard) 
Brown were : John ; James, settled in Waterford, 
Ohio, (Mrs. Wheelock has a letter written by him 
in which he mentions the death of his first wife in 
1798 and his second marriage); Phcbe; Hannah; 
Isaac; Daniel; Samuel; Aaron, (see forward). The 
will indicates that all but Samuel and Aaron were 
of age, as it specifies that the others receive their 
bequests, and the two youngest receive theirs when 
they become of age. 

(II) Aaron Brown, son of James Brown (i), 
was born in Dunstable or Nashua, New Hampshire, 
November 17, 1773. He was a soldier in the war 
of 1812. He married, September 5, 1797, Hannah 
Proctor, daughter of Reuben Proctor, of Merrimac. 
New Hampshire. She was born July 13, 1778. He 
lived in Nashua and died April 24, 1844, in Canton, 
Maine, where he removed about 1815. He was a 
charter member of the Livermore Falls, Maine, 
Lodge of Free Masons and was a prominent man in 
the order. The children of Aaron and Hannah 
(Proctor) Brown were: James (see forward); 
Nancy, born at Dunstable, December 28, 1799, mar- 
ried Rev. Bartlett; Larned Small, born in 

Dunstable, March i8, 1801 ; John, (see forward); 
Reuben Proctor, born in Wilton, Maine, January 28, 
180S ; Jefferson, born in Wilton, Maine, September 
22, 1806; Arthur, born in Wilton, Maine, October 15, 
1807 ; Rebecca Proctor, born in Wilton, February 5, 
1810; Abigail Bigelow, born at Jay, Maine, March 
29, 1812; Susannah Carpenter, born in Jay, Maine, 
July 16, 1815; Hiram, born February 9, 1817, at Jay, 
now Canton, Maine ; Orin, born October 20, 1818. 
at Jay, now Canton, died in Texas ; Belinda Bartlett. 
born in Canton, Maine, July I, 1821. 

(HI) James Brown, son of Aaron Brown (2), 
born in Dunstable, Massachusetts, or Nashua, New 
Hampshire, August 5. 1798; died April 8, 1881, at 
Grafton, Maine. Married (first) Mary Thompson. 
July 4, 1824. She died April 19, 1833; married 
(second) Ruth Stewart, October 28, 1838; she died 
February 4, 1901. The children of James and Mary 
(Thompson) Brown were: James Monroe, (see 
forward) ; Arthur, born September 24, 1827. died 
October 15, 1857; Ira Bisbce, born April 5. 1829, 
died March 12, 1831 : Ira Bisbee, born June 10, 1831, 
died July 19, 1831 ; William Thompson, born January 
16, 1833, married Esther H. Swan, June 10, 1859; he 
died April 28, 1861. The children of James and 
Ruth (Swan) Brown were: Mary, (see forward) : 
George Miller, born August 16. 1844, married Ella 
M. Briggs, March, 1864; Euthalius Irving, born 
November 14, 1848, married Freda W. Small. . 

(III) John Brown, son of Aaron Brown (2). 
born in Wilton. Maine, December 29. 1802; he mar- 
ried Huldah Gardner. When he was a young boy 
the family removed to Livermore. Maine. He was a 
house carpenter and farmer. His children were : 
John Quincy, married Lucia Littlefield, resides at 
Portland ; Joanna Allen, married Seth L. Davis, a 
farmer at Errol, New Hampshire ; Hannibal Gard- 
ner, married Mary Parlin, resides at West Parish. 
Maine; Aaron, (see forward); Bartlett Jackson. 



married; resides in Hyde Park. Massachusetts; has 
been in the same house for thirty-five years ; Jilaria 
Eunice, dressmaker, Tremont street, Boston ; Orin 
Hutchinson, born 1838; married; was a soldier in 
the civil war, prisoner in Libby for months, and 
came home and died at his brother Hannibal's, at 
Patten, Maine ; was in a cavalry regiment. 

(IV) Aaron Brown, son of John Brown (3). 
born in Livermore, Maine, July 29, 1832 ; died m 
Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1903. He married Ella 
M. Ratcliffe, born March 26, 1829. He was a cab- 
inet maker by trade. He became an architect and 
followed his profession in Boston and various towns 
in JMaine and New Hampshire. He was a man of 
great mechanical skill and his son Theodore evi- 
dently mherits some of his inventive genius from his 
father. The children of Aaron and Ellen M. (Rat- 
cliffe) Brown were: Arabella, died in infancy; 
Wendell Phillips ; Theodore Parker, born at Maiden, 
Massachusetts, October 2, i860. 

(IV) James Monroe Brown, son of James 
Brown (3), born November 15, 1825; died Septem- 
ber II, 189s; married Eunice E. Frost, November 
IS, 1849. They were the parents of Mrs. Charles 
E. Wheelock, of Worcester, Massachusetts. 

(IV) Mary T. Brown, daughter of James 
Brown (3), born August 22, 1839; married George 
H. Otis, October 10, 1863. Their children are : 
Frances Lillian, married Fred Decker, of Burling- 
ton, New Hampshire; Arthur Monroe; Jennie M., 
married Harvey C. Philbrook, of Bethel, Maine ; 
Will Howe. 

(V) Theodore Parker Brown, son of Aaron 
Brown (4), was born in Alalden, Massachusetts. 
October 2, i860. When he was two years old the 
family moved to Sterling, Massachusetts. When he 
was five years old the family moved again to Lis- 
bon, New Hampshire, where he attended the public 
schools. He came to Worcester with his parents at 
the age of thirteen. He began work in the shoe 
factory of Hon. Joseph H. Walker, and remained 
with him for nine years. He is known by the gen- 
eral public, and all over the world among dealers in 
musical instruments, as the inventor and manufac- 
turer of the Simplex Piano Player. He began to 
manufacture this instrument at 9 May street, Wor- 
cester, when piano players were a novelty, and 
looked upon by the people generally as toys. He 
developed and perfected the instrument until it 
ranks first among the piano plaj^ers in the opinion 
of competent judges. It has won prizes at the Ex- 
positions. It has been a verv popular instrument. 
The general recognition of the value of piano play- 
ers, and the very promising future for the business, 
has made the Simplex Player an article of which the 
citizens of Worcester take a peculiar pride on ac- 
count of its production here. The success of Mr. 
Brown in the business world has been very gratify- 
ing to his friends. He is especially popular in the 
Masonic bodies to which he belongs. He is a mem- 
ber of Montauck Lodge ; of Lawrence Chapter ; of 
Hiram Council and the Worcester County Com- 
mandery. Knights Templar; the Consistory, thirty- 
second degree ; the Commonwealth Club, of which 
he is president, and to the Tatnuck Country Club. 
He is a Republican in politics and was a member 
of the city council, Worcester, in 1892, and president 
of that body in 1893. 

He married. January 13, 1881, Alice J. Daniels, 
born April 26. 1863, daughter of Horace and Ann 
M. (Inman) Daniels, of Paxton. ^Massachusetts. She 
was educated in the public schools of Paxton and 
at the Friends' school, Providence, Rhode Island. 
The children of Theodore Parker and Alice J. 
(Daniels) Brown were: Barbara, born May 5. 1884, 




CJlxi^^f/i 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



I 1 : 



graduate of Worcester high school and is taking a 
four years' course at the Museum of Fine Arts in 
Boston; Marjorie, died young; Dorothy, died 
young. 

ELDRED FAMILY. The late Frederick Augustus 
Eldred, of Worcester, traced his descent from Je- 
hosaphat Eldred, who came from England in 1731. 
He bought of Isaac Green land at North Falmouth, 
it being the fourteenth and fifteenth lots of the allot- 
ment, and is spoken of in history as a yeoman. His 
son, Lemuel Eldred, born November 5, 1751, in Fal- 
mouth, died July 24, 1842, in the ninety-first year 
of his age. 

William Eldred, son of Lemuel Eldred, was born 
Sepember 25, 1780, in Falmouth (Quisset), and re- 
ceived his education in the schools of that town. 
He was a farmer, and it was from his farm that the 
first shipment of Cape Cod cranberries was ob- 
tained. He was also a salt manufacturer, having on 
his land salt works where he evaporated sea-water. 
During the war of 1812 he served in the militia as 
a member of Colonel Dimmick's regiment, and par- 
ticipated in the defense of Falmouth. The British 
sailed into the harbor, and under cover of night 
tried to land in their smaller boats, but were re- 
pulsed by Captain Eldred's company, who were con- 
cealed behind the sand hills along the beach. The 
British finally sailed to North Falmouth, where 
they burned much shipping. Captain Eldred and 
others of the townspeople were joint owners of 
some of these vessels, and appealed to congress for 
reimbursement under the French spoliation act, but 
Captain Eldred, losing his claim papers, abandoned 
the case and never received his share of the in- 
demnity. In politics he was first a Whig and later 
a Republican. He was a member of the Congrega- 
tional church, in which he held various offices, and 
to the work of which he was sincerely and earnestly 
devoted. Mr. Eldred was twice married. His first 
wife was Miss Fessenden, and their children were : 
I. Cornelius, born in Falmouth, as were all the 
others. 2. Edwin, married Elizabeth Knowlton, of 
Williamstown, Massachusetts, and had several chil- 
dren, among them Lucian, recently died in Wor- 
cester. 3. Lorenzo, married, 1845, Mercy F. Grew, 
of Falmouth. 4. William Henry, lost at sea. 5. 
Frederick Augustus (see forward) ; 6. Patience, mar- 
ried William Eldred, of another branch of the family, 
and had children : Edwin, married Hannah Lovell, 
of Worcester ; William Henry, married Harriet Mc- 
Farland, of Worcester, and has two children ; Ar- 
thur Warren, a dentist in Worcester, and preceptor 
at the Harvard Dental College of Boston ; Marion 
Frederica, wife of Charles iMinckler, of Worcester, 
and mother of two children — Ralph Eldred and 
Glen Canon. 7. Elizabeth, married Robert Tobey, 
of Sandwich. Massachusetts. 8. Susan, wife of 
Stephen Davis, of Falmouth: their children: De- 
borah. Patience, Salome. .\lom Hyde, John William, 
and Robert Franklin. 9. Hannah, wife of Benjamin 
Franklin Hatch. The mother of these children died, 
and Mr. Eldred married, when seventy years of 
age. Miss Worthington. of Boston. By this mar- 
riage there were no children. When about sixty 
years old Mr. Eldred's mind became unsettled and 
did not recover its tone for ten years, after which 
his reason was undisturbed for the remainder of 
his life, his death occurring November 26, 1859, on 
the homestead where he had been born and had 
always lived. 

Frederick Augustus Eldred, son of William 
Eldred. was born in Falmouth (Quisset), and was 
educated in the common schools of his native town. 
When about eighteen years old he went to New 



Bedford, where he served an apprenticeship of three 
years to a carriage-maker. Later he entered into 
partnership with Lyman Drury, of Worcester, in 
the manufacture of refrigerators, and after carry- 
ing on the business for several years sold his in- 
terest to Mr. Drury. Not long after he purchased 
the hat store of Mr. Barker, on Main street, and 
conducted the business for a number of years. In 
1861 or '62 he associated with himself N. S. Lis- 
comb, under the firm name of Eldred & Liscomb. 
The connection remained unbroken until the close 
of Mr. Eldred's life, after which Mr. Liscomb con- 
tinued the business until a few years ago, when he 
also died. Mr. Eldred was a good citizen, but al- 
ways avoided public life. He was a Republican in 
politics, and an earnest member of the Congrega- 
tional church, twice serving as superintendent of the 
Sunday school. 

Mr. Eldred married, October 2, 1848, Mary A., 
daughter of Albert Gallitan and Mary Cunningham 
(Stott) Liscomb, of Fair Haven, Massachusetts, 
and sister of N. S. Liscomb, mentioned above. Mr. 
Liscomb, the father, was a ropemaker of Fair Ha- 
ven, and during the gold era went to California, 
taking with him his small stock of machinery. He 
there worked very successfully at his trade for three 
years, at the end of which time he returned to Fair 
Haven. Mr. and Mrs. Eldred had no children. The 
death of Mr. Eldred, which occurred in 1872, de- 
prived the community of a good man and a wo^rthy 
citizen. 

HON. THEODORE C. BATES. The ancestors 
of Clement Bates, who was the first to come to 
the United States of America, are traceable for five 
(5) generations before the Pilgrims came to New 
England. 

Thomas Bates, of Lydd, parish of All Hallows, 
county of Kent, England, who died in 1485, had a 
son, John Bates, who died at Lydd, England, in 
1522, leaving a son, Andrew Bates, who died at 
Lydd, England, in 1533, leaving a son, James Bates, 
who died at Lydd. England, in 1614, whose three 
sons Clement, Edward and James embarked at Lon- 
don, England, for New England, April 6, 1635, in 
the ship "Elizabeth," William Stagg, master. 

Edward Bates settled at Weymouth, Massachu- 
setts, James at Dorchester, Massachusetts, and 
Clement in Cohasset, Massachusetts. Clement 
Bates brought with him in 1635 — he then being forty 
years of age — his wife Anna, also aged forty, and 
his five children, as follows : James, aged fourteen ; 
Clement, aged twelve ; Rachel, aged eight ; Joseph, 
aged five; Benjamin, aged two; and two servants; 
and there was born to them in Massachusetts a son 
Samuel. March 24. 1639. On September 18, 1635, 
Clement Bates received a grant of five acres of land 
on Town street — now called South street, Cohasset, 
which land has been in the possession of the 
original grantee and his descendants for two and a 
half centuries. 

Joseph Bates, born in England, 1630. married 
in Hingham, Massachusetts, January 9, 1657. Esther 
Hilliard; was selectman in 1671 and later. He died 
April 30. 1706. She died June 3, 1709. They had 
nine children, all born in Hingham, Massachusetts : 
Joseph, September 28, 1660; Esther, August 29, 
1603; Caleb, ^larch 30; 1666; Hannah, October 31, 
1668; Joshua, August 14, 1671 ; Bathsheba, January 
26, 1674; Clement, September 22, 1676; Ellenor, 
August 25, 1679; Abigail, October 16, 1780. 

(Ill) Joseph Bates, son of Joseph (2), born 
September 28. 1660. married Mary, daughter of 
Samuel and Martha Lincoln. He died November 3, 
1714. She died INIarch, 1752, aged ninety years. 



ii6 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



They had six children : ^lary, Joseph, Jonathan, 
Rachel, Susanna and Hester. 

(IV) Joseph Bates, son of Joseph (3), born in 
Hingham, Massachusetts, March 6, 1687, married 
Deborah, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Gill) 
Clap. He died in 1750. He was a deacon in the 
church. They had live children, all born in Hing- 
ham, Massachusetts: Joseph, May 6, 1714; Deborah, 
April 2, 1716; Samuel, March 25, 1718; Jonathan, 
March 27, 1720; Mary, April 10, 1723. 

(V) Samuel Bates, son of Joseph (4), born 
March 25, 1718, in 1737 married Mercy Beal. He 
died, aged seventy-one, in 1789. They had twelve 
children, all born in Hingham : Mordecai, June 29, 
1738; Hannah, March 11, 1740; Joseph, June 11, 
1742; Samuel, November 15, 1744; Mercy, l^ebruary 
15, 1747; Adna, November 14, 1749; Mary; 1752; 
.Mary, February 15, 1755; Susanna, March 11, 1756; 
Jonathan, May 5, 1757; Mary, April 30, 1760; 
Thomas, January 12, 1763. 

(VI) Samuel Bates, son of Samuel (5), born 
November 15, I744-. married Martha, daughter of 
Jonathan and Priscilla (Lincoln) Beal, who died in 
1905. He died November 3, 1801, was drowned off 
Cohassett Rocks. They had nine children, all born 
at Cohassett, Massachusetts : Deborah, December g. 
1765; Eliza, January 20, 1767; Obadiah, August 20, 
1769; Bela, May 10, 1772; Laban, April 3, 1774; 
Sarah, January 26, 1777: Newcomb, April 17, 1779; 
Samuel, January i, 1783; Sybil, February i, 1786. 

(VII) Obadiah Bates, son of Samuel (6), born 
August 20, 1769, was a private in Captain Peter 
Lothrop's company of (Cohassett) Massachusetts 
militia in the war of 1812; he married Hannah Beal, 
of Cohassett. He died October 20, 1831, aged sixty- 
two years. She died November 11, 1841, aged 
seventy years. They had six children, all born at 
Cohassett: Elijah, April 25, 1796; Martha, December 
25, 1797; Hannah Loring, August 10, 1799; Mary. 
May 5, i8a2 ; Ann Beal, December 12, 1803 ; Joseph, 
April 12, 1805. 

Theodore C. Bates, youngest son of Elijah and 
Sarah Fletcher Bates, is third in descent from 
Obadiah Bates, who was a private in Captain Peter 
Lothrop's company, (Cohassett) Massachusetts 
militia, in the war of 1812. 

He is third in descent from Ensign Ebenezer 
Beal, Jr., who was ensign of Captain Thomas 
Jones' fourth company of Hingham militia in 
Colonel Josiah Quincy's regiment. January 21, 1762. 

He is fourth from Captain Ebenezer Beal, Sr., 
of Hingham. Massachusetts, who was captain of the 
Hingham company in Colonel Benjamin's company 
in the Third Suffolk regiment, which marched to the 
relief of Fort William, August 15, 1757. 

He is fifth from Lazarus Beal, of Hingham, 
Massachusetts, who was a representative to the 
Masaschusetts Bay Colony or general court in 1719 
and 1720. 

He is sixth in descent from Lieutenant Jeremiah 
Beal, of Hingham. Massachusetts, who was an en- 
sign of the Hingham Foot Company. May 11, 1681. 
and a lieutenant, March 30, 1683, and a representa- 
tive to the Massachusetts Bay Colony or general 
court in 1691, 1692 and 1701. 

He is seventh in descent from Lieutenant John 
Beal, of Hingham, Massachusetts, who was a dep- 
uty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony or general 
court from 1649 to 1659. 

He is sixth from Captain Thomas .\ndrews, who 
was captain of the Hingham company in 1690. 

He is seventh in descent from Joseph Andrews, 
who was a deputy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony 
or general court from 1636 to 1638. 

He is sixth from Samuel Clapp, son of Thomas 



Clapp, of Hingham, Massachusetts, who was a 
deputy from Scituate to Plymouth from 1680 to 
1686, from 1690 to 1691, from 1692 to 1696, from 
1699 to 1703, 1705 to 1709 and 1714 and 1715, making 
twenty years. 

He is seventh from Thomas Clapp, who was a 
deputy to Plymouth court in 1649. 

He is eighth in descent from Edmund Hobart, 
of Hingham, Massachusetts, who was a deputy in 
the Massachusetts Bay Colony or general court in 
1639, 1640 and 1642. 

He is sixth m descent from Lieutenant James 
Lewis, of Barnstable, Massachusetts, who was lieu- 
tenant of the militia company in Barnstable 
^1678).. 

He is tifth in descent from Lieutenant Benjamin 
Loring, of Hull, who was ensign of the militia m 
Hull from 1713 to 1715. He was a deacon in the 
church. He held many town offices — town treasurer 
i/og, town clerk, 1717. 

He is third in descent from Major Daniel 
Fletcher, of Concord, Massachusetts, who was born 
in Concord, Massachusetts, October 18, 1718. 

He is second in descent from Captain Jonathan 
Fletcher, who was born in Acton, Massachusetts, 
January 21, 1757. 

He is fourth in descent from Lieutenant Jonathan 
llartwell, of Littleton, Massachusetts (1692-1778). 

He is fifth in descent from John llartwell. of 
Concord. ^lassachusetts, who was a soldier in Cap- 
tain Thomas Wheeler's company at the Indian am- 
buscade and siege of Brookfield, August, 167S, in 
King Philip's war. 

He is sixth in descent from William Hartwell, 
of Concord, Massachusetts, who was a corporal of 
Concord company and quartermaster of Captain 
Thomas Wheeler's company, October 15, 1673. 

He is fifth in descent from Cornet Samuel 
Fletcher, of Concord, Massachusetts, who was bugler 
in Concord company, and in Captain Thomas 
Wheeler's company in 1675, and was with Captain 
Thomas Wheeler's company at the Indian attack in 
Brookfield, Massachusetts. 

He is fifth in descent from Ensign Thomas 
Wheeler, Jr., of Concord, Massachusetts, son of 
Captain Thomas Wheeler, and ensign of the Con- 
cord company, which was commanded by his father. 
Captain Thomas Wheeler, in King Philip's war at 
Brookfield, Massachusetts, in 1675. At the time of 
this battle or Indian ambuscade and siege. Captain 
Thomas Wheeler was severely wounded and his 
horse killed, whereupon Ensign Wheeler, his son, 
placed his father on his own horse, and took his 
father out of danger, and in doing so was twice 
severely wounded in the attempt to rescue his father 
from the perilous position and pursuit by the In- 
dians, during the retreat of the ambuscade, in which 
so many of Captain Thomas Wheeler's men w^ere 
killed and wounded ; he kept close beside his father 
until he caught a horse, whose rider had been killed 
liy the Indians: he then, with Captain Thomas 
Wheeler, and the few soldiers who were escaping 
and being closely pursued by the Indians, was by the 
aid of two friendly Indians, brought back by a cir- 
cuitous route, unknown to the soldiers, to the' forti- 
fied house at Brookfield, arriving there just before 
the several hundred savages came and laid siege 
to the fortified house so fiercely and destroyed and 
Inirnt the houses of the town. 

He is sixth in descent from Captain Thomas 
Wheeler, of Concord, Massachusetts, who was in 
command of the Colonial soldiers and the inhabi- 
tants when attacked by the Indians at Brookfield. 
when the town was destroyed and so many of its 
inhabitants killed in 1675. The narrative of Captain 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



117 



Thomas VVlieeler regarding the attack on BrooU- 
field by the Indians in August, 1675, is one of the 
most interesting of official records of the state 
archives of the hardships endured by the early set- 
tlers of Massachusetts and in King Philip's war. 

He is sixth in descent from Lieutenant Simon 
Davis, of Concord, Massachusetts, who served under 
Captain Thomas Wheeler at the Brookfield ambus- 
caae and siege August. 1675. in King Philip's war, 
and who, after Captain Wheeler's wounds became so 
serious, was one of those who was by Captain 
Wheeler placed in command of the soldiers at 
Brooklield in the fortified house. 

There were live ancestors of Theodore C. Bates 
with Captain Thomas Wheeler at the ambuscade by 
the Indians and the siege of the fortified house, or 
fort, at Brookfield, Massachusetts. August 5, 1675, 
namely : 

Captain Thomas Wheeler, Ensign Thomas 
Wheeler, Jr., Lieutenant Simon Davis, Cornet Sam- 
uel Fletcher, John Hartwell. 

(VIII) Elijah Bates, son of Obadiah Bates (7), 
born April 25, 1796, married Sarah Fletcher, young- 
est daughter of Jonathan and Lucretia Emerson 
Fletclier. Sarah Fletcher was born in Boston, Mas- 
sachusetts, May 3, 1799, and died in Worcester, Mas- 
sachusetts, September 28, 1890. Jonathan Fletcher, 
her father, was born in Acton, Massachusetts, Janu- 
ary 21, 1758, and died in Boston, January 16, 1807. 
Lucretia Emerson, wife of Captain Jonathan 
Fletchu-, was born in Acton, Massachusetts, August 
4, 1764. She married Jonathan Fletcher, May 20, 
1782. Lucretia Emerson Fletcher died in Thomaston, 
Maine, July 7, 1800. They had four children: 
Francis, Susan, Lucretia, and Sarah. 

Elijah Bates was born in Cohasset, Massachusetts, 
April 25, 1796, died in North Brookfield, Massa- 
chusetts, September 6, 1863. He was a furniture 
manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts, where he 
gave seven years to learn his trade. He moved with 
his wife and only child to North Brookfield, Mas- 
sachusetts, in 1820. Then Br^iokfield was the largest 
town between Boston and Springfield, on the Con- 
necticut river. He was the first of his name in the 
town. For many years, in addition to manufacturing 
furniture, he did an extensive business manufac- 
turing large wooden boxes for shipping boots and 
shoes, for several large boot and shoe manufacturers 
in North Brookfield and the adjoining towns. He 
was a successful business man and although he was 
unfortunate in meeting several heavy losses by fire, 
having no insurance on his property destroyed, no 
man ever lost a dollar by dealing with him. He held 
many different town offices, having been selectman 
and assessor for many years. He took a deep in- 
terest in the old "Liberty Party" and the Anti-Slav- 
ery agitation ; and when the war of the rebellion 
came, he encouraged his sons to offer their services 
for the Union cause, and one of them, Thomas, 
was the first person to enlist from North Brookfield. 

THE FLETCHER FAMILY. "The Fletchers 
are supposed to be of Norman descent, and to have 
come over with William the Conquerer, as there 
was a family of their name in the Southern part 
of Normandy," so says Bentham in his "Baronetage 
of England." The family name of Fletcher has 
always been an honorable one in England, and there 
are three Fletchers holding Baronetcies, and many 
others have high offices in the army and navy, and 
also in civil life. 

The first of that name known to have come to 
this country was Robert Fletcher, who was born in 
Oxford, England, in 1592, as shown by the records 
of his death found in the town records of Concord, 



Massachusetts. Fie settled in Concord, Massachu- 
setts, in 1630, being thirty-eight years of age when 
he came to America. He brought with him his 
wife and two sons, named Luke and William, and 
a daughter named Carey, also a brother William, 
who afterward settled in Middletown, Connecticut. 
Robert Fletcher was a wealthy and influential man. 
He died in Concord, Massachusetts, April 3, 1677, 
aged eighty-five years. He had five children : Luke, 
William. Carev, Samuel and Francis. 

Francis Fletcher, the fifth child of Robert 
Fletcher, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 
1636, and married, August l, 1656, Elizabeth, daugh- 
ter of George and Catharine Wheeler. He re- 
mained with his father in Concord, afid became, 
like his two older brothers who settled in the 
adjoining towns, a great land owner. He was re- 
ported "in full communion with ye Church" in 
Concord in 1677, and was admitted a freeman the 
same year. His wife Elizabeth died June 14, 1704- 
They had eight children, viz : Samuel, Joseph, Eliza- 
beth, John, Sarah, Hczekiah, Hannah and Benja- 
min. 

Samuel Fletcher, oldest son of Francis Fletcher, 
was born August 6. 1657, and married Elizabeth 
Wheeler, April 15, 1682. He was a selectman of 
Concord many years, and town clerk from 1705 
to 1713. He died October 23, 1744, and his wife 
lived but three days after his death. They had 
eleven children, all born in Concord, Massachusetts, 
viz: Samuel (who died young), Joseph, Elizabeth, 
Sarah, John, Hannah, Ruth, Rebecca, Samuel, Ben- 
jamin and Timothy, 

Joseph Fletcher, second son of Samuel Fletcher, 
was born in Concord, Massachusetts, March 26, 
1686. He married for his first wife, Elizabeth 
Carter, December 20, 1704, and married, as his 
second wife, Hepzibah Jones, July 11, 1711. He 
was made a deacon of the church in Acton. Massa- 
chusetts, in 1738, and was a member of the com- 
mittee to apportion the land to be set off from Con- 
cord as "Concord Village" in 1723, afterwards 
called Acton in 1736. He died September 11, 1746- 
He lived on the site where his grandfather, Robert 
Fletcher, first settled. By his first wife he had 
three children: Lucy. Abigail and Lydia. By his 
second wife he had five children: Lucy, Elizabeth, 
Daniel, Charles. Elijah and Ruth. 

Daniel Fletcher, fifth child and first son of Dea- 
' con Joseph Fletcher, was born in Concord, Massa- 
chusetts, October 18, 17 18. He was a lieutenant in 
Captain David Melvin's company from March to 
September, 1747, and was stationed at_ Northfield. 
He was captain of a company in 1755 in His Ma- 
jesty's service, coming from Acton, Massachusetts, 
and served from September 10 to Deceniber 30, 
175s. fifteen weeks and six days, as signed by 
D,-inieI Fletcher. Boston. Massachusetts, March 4, 
1756. (See Vol. 94, p. 70, on Muster Roll of the 
(Tompanv in State Archives at Boston. Mass.) 

In Vol. 95, p. 320, "The Alarm List." whereof 
Samuel Davies was captain. Daniel Fletcher's name 
appears also as captain. This list included those 
who were held in reserve, .such as clergymen, dea- 
cons in the church, etc., 1757. Again, in the Massa- 
chusetts Archives. Vol. 136, p. 504, is an account 
for billetting soldiers on their return froni Lake 
George in i'758. On March 133. 1758, Daniel 
Fletcher enlisted in Colonel Ebenezer Nichols' regi- 
ment in the Canada Expedition, in which expedi- 
tion he was wounded and taken prisoner. He en- 
listed at that time from March 13 to November 
.'8, 1758. as appears in Vol. 96, pp. 416 and 418, 
upon a Muster Roll of a Company of Foot in His 
Majesty's service in the French .war, under the 



ii8 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



command of Captain Daniel Fletcher, in a regi- 
ment raised by the Province of Massachusetts Bay 
for the reduction of Canada, under Colonel Eben- 
ezer Nichols. In Vol. 98, pp. 157 and 158. upon 
the Muster Roll of a Company in His Majesty's 
service, under the command of Captain Daniel 
Fletcher, it appears that he rendered service in the 
capacity of captain from November 2, 1759, to Au- 
gust I, 1760. In Vol. 98, p. 452, upon a Muster Roll 
of Officers and Men in Captain Daniel Fletcher's 
company, in Colonel Frye's regiment, in the service 
of the Province of Nova Scotia, he served as cap- 
tain from January i, 1760, to the time of their dis- 
charge, August I, of the same year. In 1768, Cap- 
tain Daniel Fletcher was a member of the Honour- 
able House of Representatives of His Majesty's 
Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 
begun and held at Boston, county of Suffolk, on 
Wednesday, the 25th day of May, Anno Domini, 
1768. (See the Journal of jNIassachusetts Bay, May, 
1768, to April, 1770, No. 16, p. 4, Captain Daniel 
Fletcher acting member.) In 1772 Captain Daniel 
Fletcher was appointed on a committee of public 
affairs. On June 26, 1776, under Field Officers of 
the Regiment raising for Quebec, New York and 
Ticonderoga, John Cummings, Esq. was elected 
brigadier-general of the forces destined to Canada. 
( See Vol. 26, p. 277.) On June 5, of the same year, 
James Brickett, Esq., was elected in the room of 
John Cummings, who declined to be colonel of the 
regiment to be raised in Middlesex county. Jonathan 
Reed, colonel, Benjamin Brown, lieutenant-colonel, 
Daniel Fletcher, major. (See Brooks' Militia Of- 
ficers, 6-months Men, Continental Balances, Vol. 28, 
p. 28, red mark, and p. 72.) (See also Vol. 26, p. 
277, Roll and Abstract of the File, and Staff Officers 
as proposed in the Spring of 1776, Col. Reed's Regi- 
ment, in the Northern Army in the Service of the 
United States of America; Jonathan Reed to be 
Colonel, from Littleton, Mass.; Benjamin Brown 
to be Lieutenant-Colonel, from Reading, Mass. ; 
Daniel Fletcher to be Major, from Littleton. ^Nlass. ; 
William Emerson to be Chaplain, from Concord, 
Mass.; John Porter to be Adjutant, from Littleton, 
Mass. : Edmund Monroe to be Quartermaster, from 
Lexington, Mass. ; David Taylor to be Sergeant, 
from Charlestown, Mass. ; Ezekiel Brown to be Ser- 
geant's Mate, from Concord. Mass.) At the same 
time, his son, Jonathan Fletcher, was in the revolu-  
tionary war as a private in Captain Samuel Reed's 
company of Minute Men, in Colonel William Prcs- 
cott's regiment, as is demonstrated by the fact 
that the name of Jonathan Fletcher is on file of the 
Revolutionary Rolls of Massachusetts among the 
names "For the Muster Roll of Captain Samuel 
Reed's Company of Minute Men, in Colonel Wil- 
liam Prescott's Regiment, who, on and after the 
igtli day of April last (1775), did march in con- 
sequence of the Alarm on that day ;" dated at "Lit- 
tleton, February 19, 1776." (See Vol. 56 Coat Rolls.) 
He served as a Minute Man at the Lexington Alarm 
six days, from April 19 to 24, 1775. 

Major Daniel Fletcher was elected by the Massa- 
chusetts assembly. June 26, 1776, or after the revo- 
lutionary war had commenced, as a major in the 
Third battalion, destined to Canada. (See Vol. 26, 
p. 277,  Revolutionary Rolls at State House.) 

Major Daniel Fletcher died in Acton, Massa- 
chusetts, December 15, 1776, in the fifty-ninth year 
of his age, and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery 
at Acton, about one mile east from the center of 
the town. 

Major Daniel Fletcher, first son of Deacon 
Joseph Fletcher, was born in Concord, Massachu- 
sets, October 18, 1718. He married Sarah Hart- 



well, of Westford, Massachusetts, the intention of 
marriage having been entered November 12, 1741. 
They had nine children, all born in Acton, Massa- 
chusetts: Daniel, Charles (who died young), Peter, 
Sarah, Ruth, Joseph, Charles, Jonathan and Betsey. 

Jonathan Fletcher, eighth child and sixth son of 
Major Daniel and Sarah Hartwell Fletcher, was 
born in Acton. Massachusetts, January 21, 1757. 
Major Daniel Fletcher, father of Captain Jonathan 
Fletcher, was connected with the Revolutionary war 
very early in the struggle, of which fact there is 
abundant evidence. Jonathan Fletcher enlisted April 
24, 1775, in Captain Abijah Wyman's company. 
Colonel William Prescott's regiment, as from Lit- 
tleton, although his father, j\lajor Daniel Fletcher, 
was a citizen of Acton. (See Vol. 16, p. 76, Massa- 
chusetts Revolutionary Rolls.) He was in the battle 
nf Bunker Hill, in which battle Colonel Prescott's 
regiment suffered ' such severe loss of life. He 
served eight months or more in the revolutionary 
army at the s'iege of Boston under General Wash- 
ington. (See Vol. 56, Coat Rolls, p. 66, October 3, 
1775. a'so Vol. 16, p. 76.) Vol. 57 contains Jona- 
than Fletcher's autograph. Under figure seven of 
indexes of that volume, in Captain Abijah Wyman's 
company, is the receipt of Jonathan Fletcher for 
supplies, dated November 14, 1775. On January 
I.S, 1776. his name appears on the roll of Captain 
Dayid Wheeler's company, in Colonel Nixon's regi- 
ment, as a fifer from Acton, Massachusetts. (See 
Vol. 24, p. 73, Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls.) 
In 1777 he was a private in Captain George Minot's 
company. Colonel Samuel Bullard's regiment. (See 
Vol. 21, p. 79, Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls.) 
Jonathan Fletcher is recorded as a lieutenant, Feb- 
ruary 27, 1778, and was on the pay roll of Captain 
Jacoli Haskin's company. Colonel John Jacob's regi- 
ment. (See Vol. 2, p. 83, Massachusetts Revolu- 
tionary Rolls.) How much before that time he was 
commissioned as a lieutenant, we are unable to find 
by the records. From the pay rolls, it is thought 
it must have been nearly or quite a year. He served 
five months and twetity days from February 27, 
177S, as a lieutenant in this coinpany. (See Vol. 
2. p. 83. Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls.) (Vol. 
46, p. 162, shows Lieutenant Jonathan Fletcher's ac- 
counts from December i, 1778 to January i, 1779.) 
He was in continuous service as a lieutenant, until 
we find that he had been commissioned as captain 
in the Ninth Company of the Seventh Regiment, on 
July 27, 1780. (See Vol. 28, p. 66, Massachusetts 
Revolutionary Rolls.) 

On November i, 1781, the town of Fitchburg 
was required to pay certain soldiers who had not 
been paid for service, among them was Captain 
JoTiathan Fletcher, who received from the selectmen 
of Fitchburg, one hundred and five pounds and mile- 
age for seventy-five miles to each of his men. by 
order of the general court. The soldiers constitut- 
ing his company came from the towns of Lexing- 
ton, Acton, Westminster and Fitchburg. (See Vol. 
M- P- 5.35. Massachusetts Revolutionary Rolls.) He 
remained as Captain until the close of the war. so 
that from the time he was commissioned as lieu- 
tenant, made him in continuous service as lieuten- 
ant or captain nearly or quite six years, and as pri- 
vate or officer from the very commencement of the 
revolutionary war, April 19, 1775 (being then but 
eighteen years of age), in the battle of Lexington 
to its final termination in 1783. Captain Jonathan 
Fletcher had a very elegant sword presented to him 
hv the cnldiers of his company at the close of the 
war, which sword was destroyed at the time the 
Bates family residence at North Brookfield was 
burned in 1844. There was also destroyed at that 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



119 



time a large family Bible, prepared by Captain Jona- 
tliaii Fletcher, and containing a perfect and full 
record of the Fletcher family, extending back 
through many generations and branches. 

Captain Jonathan Fletcher was a warm personal 
friend of Paul Revere and also of General Henry 
Knox. After the close of the war General Knox 
became a very large owner of real estate in St. 
George's, jMaine, and went there to live in 1795, 
afterwards removing to Thomaston, Maine, where 
he died on October 25, 1806. Captain Jonathan 
Fletcher accompanied General Knox to Maine and 
remained there, near or with him, for several years, 
until the death of his wife, Lucretia Emerson 
Fletcher, who died in Thomaston, July 7, 1800. 
Captain Jonathan Fletcher went to Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, and died there January 16, 1807, and was 
Iniried in Copp's Hill burial grounds, near the Old 
North Church, with Masonic honors. He was a 
member of Saint Andrew's Lodge, Ancient Free 
and Accepted Masons, of Boston. Massachusetts. 

Thus it is clearly shown that both Major Daniel 
Fletcher and his son, Captain Jonathan Fletcher, 
were very patriotic soldiers in the colonial and revo- 
lutionary wars, especially is this true of Jonathan, 
who at the early age of sixteen years entered the ser- 
vice as a private in the minute men of 177S, and 
who merited and received several promotions, and 
remained in the revolutionary army until the close 
of the war, during si.x years of which he served as 
a commissioned officer, the first three being as a 
lieutenant, the last three as a captain. 

Captain Jonathan Fletcher, son of Major Daniel 
and Sarah Hartwell Fletcher, was born in Acton, 
Massachusetts, January 21, 1757. He was married 
on May 20, 1782, in Acton, to Lucretia Emerson. 
She was born in Acton, August 4, 1764, and died in 
Thomaston, Maine, July 7, 1800. Captain Jonathan 
Fletcher died in Boston, Massachusetts, January 16, 
1807. 

Sarah Fletcher, fourth and youngest daughter 
of Captain Jonathan and Lucretia Emerson Fletcher, 
was born in Boston. Massachusetts, May 3, 1799. She 
was married on August 2, 1818, in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, to Elijah Bates, born in Cohasset, Massa- 
chusetts, April 25. 1796. They were married by 
the Rev. John Murray, of Boston. Elijah Bates 
died in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, September 
6, 1863. Sarah Fletcher died in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, September 28, 1890. 

BERRY FAMILY. Joseph Berry (i), ancestor 
of Russell Woodward Berry, late of Worcester, 
Massachusetts, was born before 1700. While the 
record of his birth has not been found, it is believed 
that he came from a Boston family. Ambrose Berry 
and wife Hannah were living in Boston from 1686 
and probably earlier, and in 1697 and probably later. 
They had a son Joseph, born July 11, 1693; died July 
24. 1693. and there are reasons for believing that 
Joseph Berry (l), may be a son born after they 
left Boston. Ambrose Berry was' at Saco, Maine, 
in 1636, perhaps the father of Ainbrose Berry, of 
Boston, and died May 3, 1661. 

Other members of the Berry family, of Boston, 
were Thomas and Grace Berry, who had a son John, 
born March 3, 1664, and a daughter Grace born 
June I, 1669. Thaddeus and Hannah Berry had : 
I. Elizabeth, born December 2, 1665; married Joseph 
Towhsend. 2. Samuel, June 20, 1667. 3. Han- 
nah, August 12, 1668. 4. Thomas, September 
20, 1670. Thomas and Margaret Berry, of 
Boston, had Margaret, June 26, 1692, and Thomas, 
March 19, 1694. Oliver and Gartright Berry, of 



Boston, had Sarah, born January 28, 1678; Abigail, 
May 10, 1688; Oliver, February 26, 1693; John, Feb- 
ruary 4, 1696. To some of these families it seems 
certain that Joseph Berry belonged, and it is believed 
that all of them were related closely. 

Joseph Berry settled in Framingham, Massa- 
chusetts, and married there Thankful Shears, Jan- 
uary 27, 1719-20. She was the daughter of John 
Shears, of Framinghain. 

John Shears (3), son of Samuel Shears (2), was 
born in Wrentham, Massachusetts, 1666, and went 
to Framingham, Massachusetts, to settle. Flis farm 
was on Doeskin Hill where he was living in 1693. 
He was a town officer in 1724. He married, April 
9, 1688, Alice Alitchleson, of Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts. Their children were: i. Thomas, born 
January g, 1708. 2. Thankful, married January 17, 
1719-20, Joseph Berry, before mentioned. 

Samuel Shears (2), son of Jeremiah Shears (l), 
was born in 1627, in England, and probably came to 
Dedham, Massachusetts, with his father. He mar- 
ried Mary and settled in Wrentham, which 

was originally part of Dedham, Massachusetts. Fie 
died in 1691, aged sixty-four years. His wife died 
April 26, 1704. Their children were : i. Mary, born 
1664. 2. John, 1666; before mentioned. 3. Mehitable, 
February i, 1668. 4. Solomon, February 20, 1669; 
died at the age of nineteen years. 5. Grace, Febru- 
ary 29, 1672. 6. Judith, July 17, 1675. 

Jeremiah Shears (.1). was an emigrant and pio- 
neer of Dedham, Massachusetts. He was probably 
from Yorkshire in England. He married (probably 
for his second wife) Susanna Green, widow of Nich- 
olas Green. He died in 1664. It is presumed that he 
was the father of the preceding, though little is 
known of him. 

Joseph Berry married (second) Hepzibah Ben- 
jamin. He owned the farm later owned by Ezekiel 
Howe, whose father bought it of Berry. His widow 
administered his estate in 1757. Children of Joseph 
and Thankful (Shears) Berry were: i. Alice, born 
1721 ; baptised June 18, 1721, at Framingham. 2. 
Abijah, baptised July 14, 1723; died young. 3. 
Shears, (see forward). 4. Thomas, March 16, 
1726-7; was in Sudbury 1760. 5. Benjamin, April 
14. ^7331 settled in Framingham; fought in the 
Concord fight, April 19, 1775; died at Oakham, 
Massachusetts, March I, 1800. 6. Thankful, Octo- 
ber 14, 173s ; married General John Nixon, Febru- 
ary 7. 1754) one of the most prominent officers of 
Central Massachusetts in the revolution ; his fam- 
ily came from New York and the South. 7. Mary, 
May 29, 1737; married Amos Parmenter. 8. Abijah, 
December 5, 1738; died, unmarried, at Marlboro 
about 1810. 9. Lydia, April 5, 1739; married Joel 
Newton, June 3, 1862, in Southboro. (One of the 
two latter dates of birth is obviously erroneous, but 
is according to record. — Ed.) 

(II) Shears Berry, third child of Joseph Berry 
(i), the preceding, born in Framingham, Massa- 
chusetts, December 25, 1725; married June 15, 1750, 
Esther Woodward, of Holden. He settled in the 
West Wing of Rutland about the time of his mar- 
riage, and his children were born there. In 1766 
he bought a farm of Samuel Gordon at Oakham, 
and removed to that town. He and his son^ Joseph 
were associated in tfie ownership of considerable 
land in the vicinity. He was a soldier in the revo- 
lution. He was in Captain Barnabas Shears' com- 
pany in 1776, and in the Continental army, in Colo- 
nel Converse's regiment, in 1777. He enlisted for 
three years in 1777 in Captain Wheeler's company. 
Colonel Nixon's regiment. He was also a private in 
Captain Abel Holden's company, same regiment, and 



I20 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



was at Peekskill in 1779, in Captain Timotliy Paige's 
company. Colonel John Rand's regiment, and in 17S0 
was at West Point with his company. 

After the revolution it seems that Shears and 
Joseph Berry left Oakham and settled in Salem, 
New York, as stated in a deed dated March 24, 1788, 
and recorded in 1797, in which land in Oakham is 
deeded to them by John Powers, of Oakham. They 
also bought land in common from George Caswell, 
February 4, 1789, when they were both living in 
Oakham. About 1797 the family moved to Ver- 
mont, where Shears probably died. Some of them 
located at Guildhall, Vermont. Children of Shears 
or Sheers (as the records have it) Berry were: i. 
Eunice, born in Rutland, June 22, 1751. 2. Joseph, 
born in Rutland, December 29, 1752. 3. Ephraim, 
born in Rutland, November 25, 1754. 4. Esther, 
born in Rutland, December 5, 1757; married Elias 
Marsh, August l, 1776. 5. Lydia, born at Rutland, 
September 9, 1760: married at Oakham (intentions 
August 23) 1789. 6. John, born at Oakham, April 
4, 1772. 7. Woodward (see forward). 8. Benjamin, 
baptised August 17, 1777, at Rutland. 

(III) Captain Woodward Berry, seventh child 
of Shears Berry (2), born in Oakham, September 
2, 1774; baptised (October i. 1775. He married 
Nancy. The family removed to Vermont and 
resided at Guildhall, where most of the children were 
born. He was captain in the militia and served, it 
is said, in the war of 1812. 

Joseph Berry, brother of Captain Woodward 
Berry, was also a very prominent man, a lawyer, in 
1799 one of the seven founders of the Guildhall 
Church; chief judge of the court in 1822; in the 
governor's council in 1819-20-21-22-23-24; state's 
attorney in 1811-12-15-16-17-18-21-23-24; representa- 
tive to the state legislature of Vermont in 1816 ; re- 
moved to Newburj', Vermont, thence to Iowa, where 
he died ; his wife was Sarah. Perhaps Woodward 
Berry went West also. The date of his death and 
place are not known. His wife returned with the 
family to her old home in Oakham, Massachusetts, 
about 1830. She lived to an advanced age and died 
in the eighties, in Worcester, at the home of her 
son Russell Woodward Berry, Chatham street. 

Children of Captain Woodward and Nancy Berry 
were: l. Joseph Austin, born in Oakham, July 7, 
1807; died young (probably the Joseph who died 
January 7, 1839, at Oakham, though his age is given 
wrongly as twenty-two instead of thirty-two). 2. 
Sarah, born in Vermont, 181 1; died December 28, 
1839, at Oakham. 3. Sophronia. born in Vermont 
about 1812; died October 19, 1842; married Captain 
Russell Ripley, December 13, 1832, at Oakham. 
Captain Ripley was the son of Lieutenant Zenas and 
Sarah Ripley, and was born at Oakham, February 
22, 1804. 4. Russell Woodward, (see forward). 5. 
Deacon Zebina E., (see forward). 6. Isaac; settled 
in Vermont ; married Emily Copeland and had two 
children : Hortense, who married James W. Rand, 
of Weymouth, Massachusetts, and had children ; 
Nancy, who married David G. Tapley, of Worcester, 
and they have two children : Waller, married, liv- 
ing in Washington, District of Columbia, and Ella, 

married Robinson, and resides with her 

parents at no Austin street., 

(IV) Russell Woodward Barry (Berry), son 
of Captain Woodward Berry, born in Guildhall. 
Vermont, died in Worcester in 1891. He went 
to school in Vermont. When a young boy he re- 
turned with his mother to Oakham. Massachusetts, 
but soon afterward came to Worcester to learn his 
trade. He had little schooling, but having a taste 
for books, managed to acquire a good education. 
He learned the carpenter's trade and followed it all 



his life in Worcester. He built his own house at 
42 Chatham street, where his widow now resides. 
Durmg his active life he worked for the leading con- 
tractors and helped construct many of the important 
buildings that rank among the landmarks of Wor- 
cester. 

Mr. Berry was a good citizen, modest, quiet and 
domestic in his tastes, belonging to no secret orders. 
He was for many years a member of the Worcester 
County Mechanics Association. In poltics he was a 
Republican, but never cared for public office. He 
attended the Congregational church. He married 
October 5, 1843, Harriet Gage, daughter of Eben and 
Sally (Stone) Gage, of Leicester, Massachusetts. 
Eben Gage was a farmer. He lived for a time also 
at Orford, New Hampshire. He was colonel of a 
regiment of New Hampshire militia. No children 
were born to Russell Woodward Berry. 

(IV) Deacon Zebina E. Berry, son of Captain 
Woodward Berry (3), was born in Guildhall, Ver- 
mont. He was educated there and worked on 
the farm of his father there until 183 1, when he re- 
turned with the family to Massachusetts, and went 
to work in Worcester. He was then twenty-five 
years of age. He was employed first by Carter & 
Tobey, builders, and helped to build the first part 
of the old Lunatic Asylum on Summer street, and 
worked on other large structures built at that time. 
He retained the spelling, Berry, while his brother 
Russell preferred Barry. At the time of his death 
he was one of the oldest and best known carpenters 
and builders in Worcester. He died in 1889, at the 
home of his daughter Mrs. Alonzo W. Cole, 12 May- 
wood street. He was very active in church work. 
Soon after coming to Worcester he joined the First 
Baptist Church, and was one of forty baptized No- 
vember, 1831, in Fox's Pond near Green street, and 
in 1836 he was elected deacon. He served until 
1848. In his later years he was a member of the 
South Baptist Church because of his residence in 
that section of the city. 

He married (first) November 3, 1836. Lucrctia 
H. Culver, daughter of Joshua and Susan (Teed) 
Culver, of Somers, New York; married (second) 
a sister of his first wife, Susan Augusta Culver, 
September 4, 1849. Children of Deacon Zebina E. 
and Lucretia H. (Culver) Berry were: I. Susan 
Augusta, September 16, 1838; deceased. 2. Sarah 
Louisa, July 22, 1840; deceased. 3. Ella Lucretia, 
(see forward). 4. Susan Culver, January 9, 1846; 
married Charles Amidon, of Worcester. 

(V) Ella Lucretia Berry, third child of Deacon 
Zebina E. Berry (4), born in Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, March 6, 1843; married August 6, 1867, 
Alonzo W. Cole, a native of Orleans, Massachusetts. 
They reside on Maywood street, Worcester. They 
have one child, Arthur Williams Cole, born Feb- 
ruary 17, 1875 : married January 23, 1903, Emma 
Louise Taylor, daughter of Robert C. Taylor, 
formerly of Webster, Massachusetts. (See sketch 
of .-Monzo W. Cole and the Cole Family in this 
work.) 

THE KNOWLES FAMILY, as represented in 
Worcester county, is from Eastham, (the Nauset 
of the aborigines), Barnstable county, that portion 
of Massachusetts known as Cape Cod, where for 
more than a hundred and fifty years the ancestors 
of L. J. and F. B. Knowles lived, and were known 
as exemplary, wise and industrious farmers. 

Richard Knowles who had lived in Plymouth and 
there married Ruth Bower, August 15, 16,39. was at 
Eastham as early as 1653, according to Freeman, 
the trustworthy historian of Cape Cod. (Vol. II, 
P- 393. noted.) At least three of his children were 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



121 



born in the former town: Mercy, married Ephraim 
Doane, February s, 1668; John; Samuel, born Sep- 
tember 17, 1651. It would appear that Mehitable, 
born in 1655, and Barbara, born September 28, 1O56, 
were born in Eastham. Samuel married, Decem- 
ber, 1679, Mercy Freeman, and Barbara, June 13, 
1677, married Thomas Mayo. The complete 
genealogy of the Knowles family would reveal mar- 
riages with all the names early represented in East- 
ham, so that it was nearly or remotely related with 
all the dwellers in that township. 

John Knowles, son of Richard, married, Decem- 
ber 28, 1670, Apphia, daughter of Edward Bangs, 
one of the first comers and a very important man in 
the community. Apphia and her twin sister Mercy, 
born October 15, 1651, were married on the same 
day, the latter to Stephen Herrick. John Knowles 
was one of nineteen men Eastham furnished for the 
King Philip war, and was one of the slain, as ap- 
pears in the action of the colony government in pro- 
viding for his widow. Freeman (vol. I, p. 280) says, 
"and provision was especially made for Apphia, 
widow of John KnowleS; of Eastham, lately slain .in 
the service." From a note at the foot of p. 366, 
vol. II, the conclusion is drawn that he was killed 
near Taunton, June 3d, 1675 (i. e. 3d day, 4th 
month, O. S.). John and Apphia Knowles had 
three children : Edward, November 7, 1671 ; John, 
July ID, 1673 ; Deborah, March 2, 1675. When the 
father died no one of his children was old enough to 
appreciate their deprivation. Edward, older son, 
married (first) Ann Ridley, and (second) the widow 
Sarah Mayo, and was the father of si.x children. 
He was known in town annals as Deacon Knowles, 
and died November 16, 1740. The widow of John 
Knowles later married Joseph Atwood, and the ap- 
pearance of a Bangs Atwood in a later generation 
of the Atwoods would indicate that she bore chil- 
dren by her second husband. The son John, of the 
third generation in the Knowles family, married 

Mary , of whom no record is found. In an 

old burial burial ground of Eastham, near the 
shores of the town cove, the bodies of the brothers 
are buried. Quite likely many more of the family 
lie there also, but if so their memorials long ago 
disappeared. Side by side are two ancient slates, 
each having the winged skull, that of the wife with 
the traditional crossed bones, and inscriptions as 
follows : "Here Lyes Buried the Body of Mrs. Mary 
Knowles, wife of Colnl John Knowles. Died 
Nov. ye 7th. 1745, in the 73d Year of Her age:" 
"Here lies buried the body of Colnl John Knowles 
who departed this life Nov. 3d, 1757, in the 85th 
Year of His Age." When he bore the title of 
captain, John Knowles was a member of general 
court. Very likely his military appellations came 
from service in the militia. Colonel John and Mary 
Knowles had: Joshua, born 1696; John, 1698; Seth, 
1700; Paul, 1702; James, 1704; Jesse, 1707; Mary, 
1709. 

Joshua, eldest child of Colonel John and Mary 
Knowles, apparently followed the vocalon of his 
father, farming, with possibly an occasional venture 
at fishing. The metes and boundaries of the town 
assignments of land to the successive generations 
of the family indicate nearness to the center of the 
town of Eastham, and the burial 'of their dead in 
the cemeteries near that part bears out the sup- 
position. Joshua Knowles was married to Sarah 
Paine, jNIarch 13, 1717-18, by Nathaniel Freeman, 
Esq. She was born April 14, 1699, daughter of John 
and Bennet Paine, another of the oldest families 
in the township, one that later gave a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence to the country. The 
wife died July 12, 1772, and the husband, Nlay 27, 



1786. Their children were: Jesse, born April 13, 
1723; Rebecca, May 23, 1726; Sarah, March 10, 
1727-28 ; Joshua, April 27, 1730 ; Josiah, May 24, 
173s; Simeon, August 11, 1737; Susanah, March 9, 
1740. 

Simeon, youngest son of Joshua and Sarah 
Knowles, appears as follows in the Eastham records : 
"August 12, 1758, then entered the intentions of 
Simeon Knowles and Eunis Mayo boath of Eastham 
to proseed in marriage. Recorded Thomas Knowles, 
town elk." The foregoing is nearest the date of 
marriage thus far found. The wife was a repre- 
sentative of another long placed Eastham family, 
the prime ancestor, John Mayo, having been the 
first minister in the town. From Simeon comes 
whatever claims his descendants have on revolution- 
ary memories from the name of Knowles. The state 
rolls have under his name the following entry : 
"Simeon Knowles, Private. Captain Israel Higgins 
Co., Major Zenas Winslow's Regiment, Sept. 9 to 
Sept. 13, 1778, 4 days, on an alarm at Falmouth." 
Roll endorsed, "on alarm att Bedford." It is pos- 
sible that Simeon died in Eastham, before the mov- 
ing of the family to Flardwick ; certainly Paige, his- 
torian of the latter town, makes no mention of his 
death. His wife died in Hardwick, April 5. 1819, 
aged seventy-nine years. The eldest and possibly 
all the children were born in Eastham ; Simeon, 
August 17, 1766; Elisha, about 1769, died August 
14, 1859; Phebe, died, unmarried, April 7, 
1824. and others. The family had remained in 
Eastham or in adjoining towns for considerably 
mor? than one hundred years, but now comes the 
migratory spirit. It is said that the disposition of 
people from the Cape to seek better homes in 
northern Worcester county arose from the locating 
there of the Rev. Timothy Ruggles, father of his 
more famous son, who was a loyalist in the revo- 
lution. Having lived and preached in towns near 
Barnstable county, he drew upon some of his ac- 
quaintances for recruits to the settlements in the 
northwest. 

Simeon, eldest child of Simeon and Eunis (Mayo) 
Knowles, married Priscilla Doane, their marriage 
intentions having been published November 10, 1787, 
in Eastham. The Doanes were also among the long 
established dwellers in the town. Their children 
were : Bangs, born in Eastham, March 9, 1789, died 
September 17, 1806; Simeon, born Eastham, June 
22, 1791 ; Leonard, Edward, Harriet and perhaps 
others. From the above facts it would seem rea- 
sonable that the second Simeon was the real migrant, 
and that his mother and brethren accompanied hnn. 
He died .August 22, 1823, while his widow sur- 
vived until February S, 1839, dying at the age of 
seventy-five years. 

Simeon, second child of Simeon and Pri.'icilla 
(Doane) Knowles, was the first of the family in 
nearly two centuries to marry outside the Old 
Colony. He married, March 14. 1814, Lucetta New- 
ton, of Hardwick, daughter of Silas and Naomi 
(Washburn) Newton. The Newton lineage of 
Lucetta, born January 2, 1792, began in Sudbury in 
the person of Richard, whose son, Moses of Alarl- 
boro, transmitted the name to Josiah, and he to 
Timothy, a farmer, who lived on the road from 
Hardwick to Barre. All of these men were promi- 
nent in their day and generation. Timothy, born 
February 28, 1728, married Sarah Merrick, was a 
soldier in the French and Indian war, and died July 
10, 1811. His son. Silas, born February 11. 1766, 
was a Hardwick farmer and the father of Simeon's 
wife. Lucetta. The latter died in Warren, .August 
2.^, 186S, aged seventy-six years. Simeon Knowles 
died in Warren, April 9, i860. The children of 



122 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



Simeon and Lucetta (.Xewton) Knovvles were: 
Laura Loraine, born October lo, 1816, married 
Rufus Washburn, Jr., of Johnstown, New York, 
February 21, 1837; Lucius James, born July 2, 1819; 
Harriet Evaline, July 24, 1821, married Lorin Brown, 
Fitchburg, October i, 1844; Francis Bangs, Novem- 
ber 29, 1823. The family resided about three miles 
northerly from the common in Hardwick. 

Francis B., youngest child of Simeon and Lu- 
cetta (Newton) Knowles, was twice married, (tirsi), 
December 23, 1845, to Ann Eliza Poole, of Glovers- 
ville. New York. The children by this marriage 
were : Eliza Evaline, born January S> 1848, in 
Gloversville, married September 2, 1873, C. Henry 
Hutchins, of Worcester, long identified with the 
Knowles Loom Works and now president of the cor- 
poration. Their children . are : Arthur Knowles 
and Helen Mabel. Mrs. Hutchins died February 13, 
189S, and Frank Poole, born February i, 1853, in 
Gloversville, married, October 2, 1879, Alice J., 
daughter of George C. and Eleanor J. (Doane) Bige- 
low. of Worcester; their children are: George 
Francis. Marion and Lillian. The mother died 
February 24, 1865, soon after the removal to War- 
ren. Mr. Knowles's second marriage, April 23, 
1867, was to Hester A., daughter of John Reynolds 
and Fanny (Wightman) Greene, of Worcester. 
Their children are: Mabel, married June 15, 1893, 
Dr. Homer Gage, of Worcester. They have one 
child, Homer Gage, Jr. Frances, married April 23, 
1900, George Eddy Warren, of Boston, a business 
man. Lucius James, married, April 6, 1904, Laura, 
daughter of John R. McGinley, of Pittsburg, Penn- 
sylvania. Their son, Lucius James, Jr., was born 
in London, England. Both sons of Francis B. 
Knowles are directly connected w'ith the great busi- 
ness established by father and uncle. The names 
of "Frank" and "Lucius" are still heard in th? 
works and, from the names in the latest generations, 
the famous appellations bid fair to obtain for years 
to come. 

Mrs. Knowles comes of an old Rhode Island fam- 
ily, descended from John Greene, surgeon, of Gill- 
ingham, England, who came to America in 1635 
and settled in Warwick, Rhode Island, where 
through successive generations the family resided. 
The line from the first John Greene included Peter, 
Peter, Elisha. Elisha, Stephen. William, who mar- 
ried Abigail Reynolds, thus becoming the father of 
John Reynolds Greene, the father of Mrs. Knowles. 
He was for many years a Worcester merchant, and 
a warden of All Saints' Church. He was born in 
Warwick, Rhode Island, December 22, 181 1, and died 
April I, 1873. Well educated, he was highly suc- 
cessful in business, and deeply interested in church 
work. His children were : i5yron W., Hester. A., 
Stephen E., iSIary, Fannie and Abbie. 

So blended were the lives of the brothers L. J. 
and F, B. Knowles, it were much easier to write of 
them together than separately. Their characteristics 
supplemented each other perfectly, and never did 
men better exmplify the scriptural words. "Behold 
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity." There were only two sons 
in the family of Simeon Knowles. and" they ap- 
peared to have little affiliation for the life so long 
pursued by their ancestors, for we see them, in due 
order, leaving the hills of Hardwick determined to 
win their way by other means than those employed 
by the fathers. To the younger brother had been 
given the rather unusual name, for those days, of 
Francis with another, still more uncommon. Init re- 
calling an uncle, Eastham born, who had died in his 
early manhood. As a Christian name, Bangs sug- 
gester a long line of ancestral facts and no doubt 



the father, Simeon, in thus naming his boy had in 
mind a tribute to the "Cape Cod Folks," whose 
memory to him was especially dear. However, as 
the years went by and the boy advanced to man- 
hood his double name was seldom used in its en- 
tirety. Indeed among his immediate friends he was 
more often known as "Frank," while for signature 
purposes the initials, F. B., were found to be all 
he had time to write. 

After securing whatever of educational aid the 
common schools of Hardwick could afford, with 
some higher attainments at Leicester Academy, he 
early essayed the role of schoolmaster himself, in 
this capacity serving in Dana, and possibly in other 
nearby towns. While still four years away from 
his majority he was permitted to leave the farm and 
to undertake the task of shifting for himself. His 
older sister Laura had married in Johnstown, New 
York, and it is possible that this fact accounts for 
her brother's presence, when nineteen years old, as 
a teacher in the neighboring village of Gloversville. 
He had not assumed the profession as a lifelong 
occupation, but rather a makeshift till some better 
way appeared. The place where he thus found him- 
self was noted then, as it is now. for its manufacture 
of kid and buckskin gloves and mittens, leading in 
this particular all other places in the country. What 
more natural than that this enterprising, resource- 
ful New England boy should speedily see a chance 
for himself to better his condition, by forsaking the 
schoolroom for the mart of trade. At any rate 
ere long he became a salesman for one of the great 
glove making companies of the town and, going upon 
the road, he speedily familiarized himself with a 
large part of the eastern portion of the country. 
April I, 1845. he entered upon the making of gloves 
himself, continuing in this occupation till he em- 
barked in the clothing business, and this was his 
vocation when in 1883 came the call from his brother 
to come tiack to Massachusetts. 

He, therefore, came to Warren, Worcester coun- 
ty, to bear a hand in the development of the inven- 
tions which were taking shape in the fertile brain 
of Lucius J., and from that time onward his interests 
were largely in this part of the Commonwealth. 
Though L. J. Knowles was conducting a great busi- 
ness in his making of steam pumps in his Warren 
factory, he was not satisfied, but desired rather to 
enter upon the manufacture of looms, upon whose 
improvement his mind had been dwelling. Accord- 
ingly the advent of the younger brother followed 
and with expected pleasing results. We are told 
that the first loom was constructed in the pump 
w'orks of Warren, but the advantages of Worcester 
soon became so obvious that in 1866 the loom works 
were transferred to this city and first established 
in Allen court, the name of F. B. Knowles appearing 
in a Worcester directory for the first time in 1867. 
The older brother continued his residence in War- 
ren. 

Though constantly growing, the business remained, 
in Allen court until 1879, when it took a move to 
the southward and expanded into the so-called 
Junction shops. Progress, however, knows no- 
boundaries and the capacity of this location was 
soon overtaxed. In 1890, having been erected near 
the Boston & Albany Railroad on the corner of 
Grand and Tainter streets, the most extensive plant 
of its kind in the country, the business was re- 
moved for the third time into quarters seemingly 
ample for 'J-ears of development, yet in 1892, before 
the blight of the Wilson Bill had struck the nation, 
enlarged area was again in urgent demand. During 
all these years of growth and prosperity, the younger 
of the Knowles Brothers was constantly at his post, 




(f^Yfli^a^-u^^O-^ 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



an invaluable factor in all the many features of the 
vast enterprise. Of the older brother, it is said that 
he never sold a machine, gave little heed to the 
purely business details of the enterprise, but busitd 
himself with the endless possibilities in the mechan- 
ism of loom making. On the contrary, F. B. had iio 
mechanical tastes nor talent, could not drive a nail, 
but the pushing of the manufactured articles into 
public sight and favor was his delight. The financial 
side of the work he could and did handle marvel- 
ously well, till at his death he could truthfully say, 
had he cared to do so, that the Knowles Loom 
Works were the most extensive in the coimtry, if 
not in the world. 

The limitations of human strength and energy 
speedily appear in the strenuous life which the 
ardent Americans lead and, long before the Knowles 
Brothers had reached the age at which their fathers 
were still doing long and arduous days' work on 
their respective farms, these princes of mechanical 
industry found it necessary to abate somewhat the 
intensity of their labors, but they did not begin 
early enough. Both of them were wont to seek rest 
and recuperation during the winter months in vari- 
ous ways. Florida, long the fabled possessor of the 
fountain of youth, had been a resort for Francis 
B., and he was with his brother when, in the spring 
of 1884, the latter passed away at the Riggs House, 
in Washington, a victim of that specially character- 
istic ailment of Americans, another name for over- 
work, "Heart Failure," a fate that a few years later 
was to fall to the lot of F. B. himself, whose physi- 
cal breaking down began with his arduous labors at 
the Centennial Exposition in 1876 through his de- 
termination to make the Knowles loom succeed. 
The loom became a wonderful success, but at what 
a cost. 

Recognizing the advisableness of a j-early respite, 
Mr. Knowles had several years before interested him- 
self in Florida investments and had become the 
owner of extensive areas there. In Winter Park., 
he was the principal owner of the Seminole Hotel, 
and was the president of the development company, 
and here a large part of the year, at any rate during 
the cold weather, but he was wont to remain. It was 
at the end of his annual stay that, in the spring of 
1890, with his family he started homeward. For six 
weeks, by slow stages, they were working north- 
ward, that he might the better adapt himself to the 
climate. The month of May found them in Wash- 
ington and, while friends were expecting their early 
return, there came to his older son the startling dis- 
patch that the father had suddenly died of angina 
pectoris. The news thus sent came from Post- 
master General John Wanamaker, a personal friend 
of many years standing. There followed the sad 
completion of the homeward journey, the services at 
Piedmont Church, of which he had been so long a 
pillar, and the final resting place in beautiful Rural 
cemetery. 

The smile which ever lighted the face of Francis 
B. Knowles was an excellent inde.x of his nature, 
and perhaps this very look had much to do with 
the success that attended him. "The world shall 
be better for my having passed through it" is said 
to have been a sentiment close to whose truth he 
he tried to live. How well he succeeded a grateful 
community has repeatedly borne testimony. From 
friends, acquaintances, and employees there came 
one common statement, that he merited all the suc- 
cess that he achieved, that he was a faithful friend, 
the kindest of employers and in every way the best 
of citizens. 

In these hurrying days, it is a sad fact that the 
most admirably equipped men cannot afford the 



time for political preferment. The degree to which 
machinery and enterprises are speeded, demands 
every bit of strength that a man possesses and 
ever the call is for more. Though a lifelong Re- 
publican in his political affiliations and a liberal 
supporter of campaign expenses, Mr.- Knowles never 
saw the day in his Worcester life that he could give 
to serving his fellow citizens in any official capac- 
ity. Had he been able to accept there can be no 
doubt as to the positions in which he would have 
shone through the suft'rages of those who knew so 
well his sterling worth. Whatever diversion he 
took from business was found in religious lines. 
For years he conducted Sunday school institutes 
through Worcester county, and in the labors of the 
Young Men's Christian Association he was inde- 
fatigable. 

With so long a lineage, including so many 
names of sterling worth, there need be no surprise 
that jNIr. Knowles was a devoted member of the 
Congregational church. His advent to Worcester 
was in the days when that denomination was be- 
ginning its career of expansion. He was here early 
enough to give hearty aid and comfort to the propo- 
sition to establish Plymouth Church, but that was 
located somewhat distant from the part of the city 
in which his interests chiefly lay, hence he was 
ready to help forward the new Piedmont venture 
and here was his church home for the remainder 
of his days. He was an early Sunday school sup- 
erintendent here and one of the most beloved 
deacons frotri the beginning. Still he was not at 
all confined in his giving, and when Pilgrim Church 
was taking shape, along with his sister-in-law, !Mrs. 
Helen C. Knowles, he gave the site for the edifice 
and was in addition a liberal giver to the enterprise 
all the way along. He was a generous donor to- 
wards every good cause, and Knowles Hall, an 
edifice in the plant of Rollins College at Winter Park. 
Florida, attests his interests in the educational de- 
velopment of the new south. To the same insti- 
tution he gave a further sum of money for the 
endowment of scholarships. No good cause ever 
appealed to him in vain. He was the third largest 
giver toward the edifice of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association and had long been a life member. 
The last check drawn by him was for $5,000 in be- 
half of the Young Women's Christian Association 
of Worcester. 

His home life was an ideal one. There he sur- 
rounded himself with all that wealth and culture 
could provide, and the same was a favorite resort 
for those who delighted in art and literature. Mrs. 
Knowles, having traveled extensively at home and 
abroad, is an excellent judge of art and, with ample 
means at her command, has made a collection of 
paintings larger than that afforded by some public 
galleries. The only regret that one can have in 
contemplating so admirable a career is that to the 
successful manufacturer, the faithful friend, good 
citizen and Christian gentleman there had not been 
granted greater length of days for the enjoyment of 
the fruitage of wise planting and judicious culture. 

For more than twenty-five years the name of 
Lucius J. Knowles, of Worcester, was a synonym 
for the business enterprise and integrity. His name 
with that of his brother, though only the initials 
were usually employed, became known as far as the 
necessity of looms extended, and that means the 
limits of the civilized world. From a long line of 
industrious Cape Cod farmers, he and the other 
children of Simeon Knowles were the first to en- 
joy the luxury of double names, but the easily pro- 
nounced combination, Lucius James, was quite too 
long frir his busy life and it was generally abbrevi- 



124 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



ated, especially when written, to the first letters onlj-. 
The student of genealogy may find interest in the 
fact that his Christian appellations do not appear in 
the long line of ancestral names. Evidently Simeon, 
the third, intended to begin a new series. Hardwick, 
as an agricultural town, though a great improvement 
on Eastham, so long the home of the Knowles 
family, did not present attractions sufficient to hold 
the older son of Simeon and Lucetta. Evidently, 
like so many New Hampshire people, he thought 
his native town a good one to emigrate from. It 
is easy to fancy his boyhood on the country farm, 
getting what he could out of the district school, 
meanwhile dreaming dreams of the great outside 
world in which he early determined to play a con- 
spicuous part. 

One of his early schoolmasters was his maternal 
uncle, John C. Newton, for many years a resident 
of Worcester, and thereafter he was privileged to 
add several terms at Leicester Academy, then one 
of the best secondary schools in the Commonwealth. 
In a word, though by no means liberally educated, 
he was well equipped for the work on which he 
was about to enter. Before he was twenty-one years 
old, we find him in Shrewsbury, a clerk in the 
store of W. \V. Pratt. In 1838, when only nineteen 
years of age, he formed a partnership with his 
Uncle Newton, his former teacher, and together 
they conducted a general store in the same village. 
On the retirement of his uncle in 1841, he took in 
as partner, his first employer, W. W. Pratt, and 
so continued till 1844. During these days, the young 
merchant has married and, in a small way, pros- 
pered, but he is very far from the goal which in 
vision attracts him. In these days the public be- 
gins to hear of the accomplishments of Daguerre, 
the Frenchman, in his experiments with light on 
sensitized silver, and L. J. Knowles is the very first 
man in Worcester to undertake a realization of this 
wonderful discovery. His studio was on Alain street, 
near the old location of the Quinsigamond Bank, 
or just north of Central street. It is possible to 
find in the city today several specimens of his early 
work. Indeed, the very first exposure made for pay 
is still a cherished possession of the subject. But 
photography did not satisfy and he ne.xt engaged 
in spooling cotton thread in New Worcester. In 
1847 he is making cotton warp in the town of 
Spencer and two years later in Warren. There he 
busied himself with both cotton and woolen mills 
and engaged in the manufacture of the steam pump 
which he had invented. This was eminently suc- 
cessful and its development would have satisfied any 
ordinary man, but he had not yet reached the voca- 
tion which he deemed specially his own. All suc- 
cessful men have pet schemes or plans, some of 
which, if they are persistent, they realize. During 
all these years Mr. Knowles, who was a mechanic 
by nature, had fancied improvement in looms for 
the making of fabrics. His first invention in this 
line was in 1856. By the aid of one wood workman 
and two machinists, the first loom was set up in 
the pump works. An inspection of the inventions 
made by this Hardwick farmer's son, with a realiza- 
tion of the consideration each one involved, leads 
us to wonder where he found any leisure for di- 
version. We are told that when in Shrewsbury 
he made improvements in organs and other reed 
instruments, and that here he began his studies in 
the "safety steam boiler feed regulator." As early as 
1S40, he was working on appliances for the applica- 
tion of electricity as a motor, anticipating in this re- 
spect the invention of later years, for he made several 
engines to be thus propelled. Apparently there was 
very little time when he was not devising some 



way of improving an old machine or of making an 
entirely now one. In fine, more than one hundred 
inventions issued by him stand to his credit in the 
Washington patent office. 

Of the calling of his younger brother in iSoj. 
mention has been made in the sketch of the latter's 
life, and of the development of the loom manufact- 
ure, the second greatest industry in Worcester, the 
story is briefly told in that chapter. Were it de- 
sirable to extend the story in any way it would be 
only to note the character of the workmen that the 
loom works demand. Skilled mechanics are ever 
the boast of New England and few enterprises ever 
drew together a greater number of men, every one 
of whom was able to successfully conduct great 
enterprises of his own. An inspection of the intel- 
ligent faces seen in the great shops on Grand and 
Tainter streets can not but impress the beholder 
with the nobility of labor. The overalled, dusty 
workmen are members of the city government, 
leaders in the political parties of the state, deacons 
and Sunday school superintendents in their re- 
spective churches and, in nearly all cases, among 
the most respected men in the community. 

While a resident of Warren, Mr, Knowles en- 
joyed the distinction of representing the district to 
which his town belonged in the general court in 
1862, and again in 1865, thus having the privilege 
of assisting in upholding the hands of John A. 
Andrew in the trying days of the civil war. In 
1869, his senatorial district sent him as its choice 
to Boston as one of the forty senators for that 
term. That he was painstaking, faithful public ser- 
vant need not be affirmed. He was one of the 
most public-spirited citizens in Warren and his de- 
parture was considered a great loss to the township, 
but the demands of his investment in Worcester 
were too strong to be resisted. However, he left 
in the town so long his abode and so loyal to him, 
substantial tokens of his reward, for in his will he 
devised the sum of $5,000 as a fund for the support 
and maintenance of the free public library of that 
town, also the sum of one thousand dollars for the 
perpetual care of his lot in the cemetery, where 
rest the remains of his parents and those of his 
brother's wife. 

As a resident of Worcester, the directory for 
1871 has his name for the first time and thence for 
thirteen years he was an embodiment of zeal and 
energy for every good cause and work in the city's 
development. Not alone was he devoted to the 
improvement and advancement of the industry with 
which his name was linked, but also the best in- 
terests of the city were his. In 1873 he held a seat 
in the common council and gladly would his fellow 
citizens have kept him there longer had his time 
and other duites permitted. The dominance of 
business robs the public of the very best services 
which might otherwise be employed. He was a 
director in the Central National Bank and in the 
State Mutual Life Insurance Company, was presi- 
dent of the People's Savings Bank and of the 
Board of Trade and was a prominent figure in the 
management of other financial interprises of a public 
or semi-public character. It was a pleasant recog- 
nition of his life-long labors, intellectually as well 
as physically, that Williams College in 1869 gave 
him the honorary degree of A. M. Many a wearer 
of such honors, secured in regular course, never 
merited them half so much as this self-tausht me- 
chanic and manufacturer of Worcester. The col- 
lege was honored in his acceptance of the proffered 
recognition. 

When a young man in Shrewsbury, Mr. Knowles 
married, May 13, 1841, Eliza Ann Adams, of that 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



12 = 



town, and for more than twenty years she was his 
faithful companion as he strove for success. She 
died at the age of fifty-six years, February 17, 1873. 
Some time afterwards he was married to !Mrs. 
Helen C. Hayward, of Boston, daughter of Alex- 
ander and Cornelia CGoodnowJ Strong. Possessea 
of similar tastes, theirs was a singularly happy life 
during the remainder of Ins earthly work. 1 lie col- 
lection of paintings which they made and with which 
they adorned their beautiful Alain street residence 
was one of the largest and best in Central Massa- 
chusetts. Mrs. Knowles, who did not long survive 
her husband, dying November 5. 1884, when fifty- 
one years old, signalized her devotion by leaving 
th esum of $25,000 for the furtherance of art study 
in Worcester. The income of this sum, at present in 
the care of the St. Wulstan's Society, is the prime 
source for the maintenance of the Art Museum, one 
of Worcesters most cherished institutions. 

While usually enjoying a high degree of health, 
Mr. Knowles was conscious of serious impairment 
of the same through his excessive labors in the 
care of his wife during a visit made by them to 
Europe some two years before his death. Realiz- 
ing somewhat the limitations of energy and strength, 
he had begun to abate the incessant strain to which 
he had so long subjected himself. It was with this 
thought in mind that with his wife he had visited 
Fortress Monroe in the winter of 1884, and coming 
northward had met in Washington his brother and 
wife. Here at the Riggs House he was taken vio- 
lently ill with the same ailment which carried off 
Charles Sumner and so many other hard workers, 
viz. : angina pectoris, and after a brief period of 
agony died February 25. His body was brought 
home for interment and with that of his brother 
sleeps in Rural cemetery. 

From the day that he found himself possessed 
of anything to give, Lucius J. Knowles was a gen- 
erous giver. To his church, to public measures, 
to everything that seemed good and needy he was 
charitable. The Lord, loving a cheerful giver, must 
have had an unusual liking for the Knowles Broth- 
ers. He was long a mainstay in Union Church and 
for many a year one of its cherished deacons. 
While a Congregationalist in his first allegiance, 
few churches ever went to him for aid without get- 
ting it. Though he has passed on to another world 
several thousands of his estate went towards the 
building of the beautiful edifice of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, of which he was a life mem- 
ber. While his home was in the southern part of 
the city, on Main street, and he had a just and proper 
liking far his vicinage, he was not cribbed nor con- 
fined by narrow boundaries. In everything his 
progress was on the very broadest lines possible. 
Worcester's most prosperous days have been seen 
under the developing care and assistance of such 
men as the brothers' Knowles, men whose interests 
and affections were here not spread over a section 
so extended that little thickness was possible. Con- 
stant, determined, honest, progressive, would that 
Worcester had more of their kind and character. 

ALONZO WILLIAMS COLE. In the Cole 
family to which Alonzo Williams Cole, of Wor- 
cester, belongs, the tradition of three emigrant 
brothers is confirmed by sufficient proof. John, Job 
and Daniel Cole came to New England in the em- 
ploy of William Collier, a London merchant, in 1633. 
John Cole died in Plymouth, in 1637, and in his will 
mentioned Master Collier's men in describing his 
brothers to whom he made bequests. 

(I) Daniel Cole, the youngest of the trio, first 
appears on the records April 6, 1640, when he owned 



fifty acres of upland granted then. He was re- 
ported as able to bear arms at Yarmouth in 1643, 
and was made a freeman June, 1645, at Yarmouth. 
He was one of the jury that tried Alice Bishop 
for infanticide in 1648. He was a tailor by trade, 
hie sold land at Marshfield June 8, 1649. He re- 
moved to Eastham in 1652. He was a deputy to the 
general court in 1654-57-01-67-89. He was constable 
in 1664 and selectman in 1668- 70-71-72-81. 

He died December 21, 1694, aged eighty years. 
His wife Ruth died December 15, 1694, aged sixty- 
six years. Administration was granted to his son 
Israel, on Daniel Cole's estate, January 15, 1695, 
and later an agreement was signed by all the heirs, 
as given in the following list of his children: i. 
John, see forward. 2. Timothy, born September 4, 
1646. 3. Hepsebah, April 16, 1649; married Daniel 
Doane. 4. Ruth, April 15, 1651 ; married John 
Young. 5. Israel, January 8, 1653. 6. James, 
November 3, 1655. 7. Mary, March 10, 1658; mar- 
ried Joshua Hopkins. 8. William, September 15, 
1663. 9. Daniel. 10. Esther or Hester; married 
JNIedad Atwood. 

(II) John Cole, eldest child of Daniel Cole (.1), 
was born in Yarmouth, July 16, 1644. He moved 
to Eastham with his parents and lived there during 
most of his active life. He married Ruth Snow, 
daughter of Nicholas Snow, December 12, 1666. 
He was at Groton in 1672, but returned to East- 
ham when the settlers had to abandon their homes 
in 1675-76, in King Philip's war. He w'as living in 
Eastham again in 1695. His wife died June 27, 
1717. He died June 6, 1725. Their children, most 
of whom were born in Eastham were : r. Rutli. 
born ilarch 11, 1668; married William Twining. 
William (2), William (i). 2. John (see forward). 
3. Hepsibah, June 20, 1672. 4. Hannah, March 27, 
1675; died June II, 1677. 5. Joseph, June II, 1677. 
6. Mary, October 27, 1679. 7. Sarah, June 10, 1682. 

(III) John Cole, second child of John Cole (2), 
born in Eastham, Massachusetts, March 6, 1670; 

married Mary , who died February 17, 1731-2. 

He died December 13. 1746. Their children were: 

1. Jonathan, born October 4, 1694. -■ John, Octo- 
ber 14, 1696. 3. Mary, August 25, 1698. 4. James, 

October 23, 1700. 5. , January 21, 1703. 6. 

Joshua, March 20, 1705. 7. Moses, July 22, 1707. 
8. Phebe, October 29, 1709. 9. Thankful, October 
20, 1712; died young. 10. Joseph, (see forward). 
II. Thankful, October 19, 1716. 

l^IV) Joseph Cole, tenth child of John Cole 
(3), was born in Eastham, ]Massachusetts, October 
13, 1714. He died in the south parish of Eastham 
in 1800. The records of his children are not at 
hand and that of Jesse, presumed to be his son, is not 
recorded. 

CV) Jesse Cole, believed to be the son of Jo- 
seph Cole (4), born in Eastham, Massachusetts, 
February 4, 1755 ; married January, 1772, Bethia 
Young, of Eastham, of one of the pioneer families 
there. She was born September 21, 1752. Jesse 
Cole was a soldier in the revolution, in Captain 
Solomon Higgins' company of Eastham, enlisted 
July 12, 1775, and served six months, four days in 
defence of the seacoast. He died in the south 
parish of Eastham in 1803. 

The record of his children is not complete. 
Among them were : i. Jesse, Jr., who died in 1800. 

2. Elisha, (see forward). 

(VI) Elisha Cole, the grandfather of Alonzo 
Williams Cole, of Worcester, Massachusetts, born 
in Orleans. Massachusetts, June 4, 1784: died there 
April 6, 1865. He was educated in the common 
schools of Orleans, and at an early age studied 
navigation and followed the sea. For many years 



126 



WORCESTER COUNTY 



he was a sea captain, but finally abandoned this 
occupation and bought large tracts of land in and 
near Orleans, where he conducted a farm and salt 
works. He raised sheep and cattle and was one 
of the leading men of his day in the town. He 
continued to run his farm up to the time of his 
death. He w^as a selectman in 1828 and repre- 
sentative to the general court 1833. He was a 
Universalist in religion and a Republican, in his 
later years, in politics. He was greatly interested 
in public questions and his one great desire in his 
last years was that he might live until Richmond 
was taken. His wish was gratified. 

He married January 5, 1804, Keziah Doane, 
daughter of Azariah and Polly Doane, and de- 
scendant of the emigrant, John Doane (i), through 
Daniel Doane (.2) ; Joseph Doane (3) ; Joshua 
Doane (4), father of Azariah Doane (5). She died 
at Orleans, September 20, 1869. Children were: i. 
Jesse, born September 30, 1804 ; died March 16, 
1806. 2. Bethiah, December 4, 1806 ; died October 
10, 1808. 3. Meriel, December 25, 1808. 4. Alonzo 
(.see forward). 5. Dorinda, January 19, 1814. 6. 
Keziah Doane, July i, 1817. 7. Elisha, June 12. 
1820. 8. Mary Doane. July 16, 1822. 9. Sally, April 
8, 1825. 10. Mark, November 12, 1826; died July 
21, 1849. II. Benjamin, February 10, 1830. 

(VH) Alonzo Cole, fourth cliild of Elisha Cole 
(6), was born at Orleans, Massachusetts, March 4. 
1812. He received a common school education in 
the schools of his native town. He shipped before 
the mast when very young and followed the sea 
for many years. He was captain of various ves- 
sels. He was part owner of his last vessel, a 
barque, the Clara C. Bell. His wife wished to ac- 
company him on one of his voyages, and against 
the wishes of her parents and friends she went 
with him on a voyage south, taking with her their 
only child, .\lonzo Williams. While in port at 
Charleston, South Carolina, she was stricken with 
yellow fever and died. He determined to bury the 
body of his wife in Orleans. He succeeded in evad- 
ing the quarantine officers until he reached Boston, 
where some of the crew informed the authorities 
and he was fitted for evading the quarantine law'S. 
But he succeeded finally in getting the body buried 
in the old graveyard in Orleans after much diffi- 
culty. It cost him fully a thousand dollars to carry 
out his purpose. 

Mr. Cole was a Universalist in religion and a 
Republican in politics. He was a Free Mason. 
He married August 20, 1839, Melissa Smith, daugh- 
ter of William and Abigail (Doane) Smith, of Or- 
leans. William Smith was also a sea captain. Their 
only child was Alonzo Williams Cole (see forward). 

(Vni) Alonzo Williams Cole, only child of 
Alonzo Cole (7), was born in Orleans, Massachu- 
setts, March 13, 1844. He attended the comtnon 
schools at Orleans until seventeen when he went 
to East Somervillc, Massachusetts, and lived with 
his aunt while attending the Somerville high school. 
He returned to Orleans, but after a short time re- 
moved to Worcester where he lived with another 
aunt, Mrs. A. E. Peck, for about three years, and 
worked in the art store of his uncle, at first. Then 
he decided to learn the trade of machinist and en- 
tered the Loom works of George Crompton for that 
purpose. After a year and a half he went to work 
for L. W. Pond as a machinist. He was working 
there during the war. He left the shop to enlist 
July 12, 1864, in Company E, Forty-second Massa- 
chusetts Infantry. The company was on guard duty 
in the city of Washington and vicinity. They were 
stationed at Great Falls, Maryland. He was mus- 
tered out November 11, 1864. 



Upon his return home, he went to work again 
for L. W. Pond and became a journeyman machmist 
in about a year and a half. He accepted a position 
at Piedmont, West N'lrginia. as mechanic for the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but after a year there 
his health obliged him to give up the work. He 
became foreman for Richardson & Merriam, and 
later for Mclver Bros., who succeeded the former 
firm. He remained in a responsible relation to this 
firm for twenty-five years. He worked for Marcus 
Mason & Co.. makers of plantation machinery, and 
the Stowe Shoe Machinery Company for three 
years. He has been for several years tool-maker 
for the A. Burlingame Company, manufacturers of 
engines. He ranks well among the expert mechanics 
and skilled machinists of a city that has few rivals 
in this respect. Mr. Cole is a man of retiring dis- 
position, greatly attached to his home and busi- 
ness interests. He is highly respected in the church 
and community that knows him. He is an active 
member and one of the trustees of the Trobndge 
Memorial Methodist Church. In politics he is a 
Republican. 

He married Ellen Lucretia Berry, August 6, 
1867, at Worcester, Massachusetts. She was the 
daughter of Zebina and Lucretia H. (Culver) 
Berry, of Worcester. They have one child: Arthur 
Williams Cole, born in Worcester. February 17. 1875, 
married Januarj' 23, 1903, Emma Louise Taylor, 
daughter of Robert C. Taylor, formerly of Webster, 
Massachusetts. He was educated in the Worcester 
schools: graduate of the high school, also the Wor- 
cester Polytechnic Institute; is at present professor 
in the State University of Maine, near Bangor. 

CYRENUS ALDRICH. George Aldrich (I) 
was the emigrant ancestor of Cyrenus Aldrich. of 
Worcester, Massachusetts. He came in 1631 from 
Derbyshire, England, to America, and settled first 
in Dorchester in New England. In 1640 he was 
in Braintree. and in 1663 he was among the first 
seven to arrive in the town of Mendon. He mar- 
ried in England. September 3, 1629. Katherine Seald. 
She was born in i6lo according to a deposition made 
in 1670. He died March I, 1683. His will was 
dated at Mendon, November 2, 1682, and was proved 
April 26, 1683. The children of George and Kath- 
erine Aldrich were: Abel, Joseph, Mary, INIiriam, 
Experience. John, Sarah, married a Mr. Bartlett : 
Peter. Mercy, married a Mr. Randall : Jacob, see 
forward ; Martha, married a Mr. Dunbar. 

(II) Jacob Aldrich, son of George Aldrich (r), 
was born February 28. 1652. He married. Novem- 
ber 3. 1675, Hnldah Thayer. He died February 22, 
1695. Their children were: Jacob, Abel. Seth, Hnl- 
dah, Rachel, Sarah, David, see forward; Peter, 
John. Moses, Mercy, and Rachel. 

(III) David Aldrich. seventh child of Jacob 
.\ldrich (2), w'as born in Mendon. Massachusetts, 
May 3, 16S5. He married (first) Hannah Capron, 
who died February 20. 1732. He married (second) 

Mehitable . The children of David and 

Hannah (Capron) Aldrich were: David. Edward. 
Elizabeth. Jonathan. Peter, Jonathan. Margaret. 
Abner, Levi, see forward; and Ichabod. David 
Aldrich died March 15, 1771. 

(IV) Levi Aldrich, ninth child of David Aldrich 
(3). was born in Mendon. Massachusetts, December 
IQ, 1729. He married. February 7, 1745, Abigail 
Hunt. He died December 22. 1795. Their chil- 
dren were: Rnfus, Nathan, Levi, Nathaniel. Amasa, 
see forward : Chloe, Phineas, Abigail. Luther, Cal- 
vin, and David. 

(V) Amasa .Mdrich. fifth child of Levi .-Mdrich 
(4), was born in Mendon, Massachusetts. June 13, 



^^•ORCESTER COUNTY 



127 



1760. He married, November i, 1780, Urana Paine. 
She was born September 17, 1763, and died February 
11, 1843. He died December 2, 1813. His widow mar- 
ried (.second; Gen. Philemon Whitcomb, of Swan- 
zey, New Hampshire. Amasa Aldrich went from 
Mendon to Swanzey after the revolution. The chil- 
dren of Amasa and Urana (Paine) Aldrich were: 
Marmaduke, born August 13, 1781 ; Mary, May 27, 
1783; Urana, March 3, 1785; Phineas, May 20, 1787; 
Amasa, March 18, 1789; Paine, see forward; Rufus, 
January 20, 1793. died 1798; Otis, July 6, 1795. died 
1798; David, September 6, 1797; Anna, August 31, 
1799: Paul Fisher, December 26, 1801 ; Jacob, March 
3. 1804, died 1804; John Langdon, March 27, 1805; 
Jethro, May 14, 1807, died 1807; William, Octo- 
ber 20, 1808. 

(.VI) Paine Aldrich, sixth child of Amasa 
Aldrich (5), was born in Swanzey, New Hampshire, 
January 4, 1791. He married (.first), February 18, 
1S13, Sarah (Sally) Hammond, daughter of Joseph 
Hammond. She was born June 17, 1793- Pa'"e 
Aldrich was brought up in his native town and 
attended the schools there. After his marriage he 
removed to Richmond, New Hampshire, where he 
bought the Cook Mills at North Richmond and 
repaired and built them over. While there he 
invented the turntable for railroads, and in 1830 
he came to Worcester to manufacture turntables. 
During the early period of railroad building in the 
United States and in tact from the thirties until the 
time of his death Mr. Aldrich had a large demand 
for his contrivance for turning around locomotives, 
cheaply and quickly. He built his shop first where 
the Aldrich House stands near Aldrich Place. He 
associated with him in the business his son Cyrenus 
Aldrich. He invested largely in Worcester real 
estate. He bought pasture land in the vicinity of 
Pleasant street and on both sides of High street 
between Pleasant and Chatham streets. He built 
brick houses on the street opposite his works. For 
a time he lived in a hou.se on the site of the 
present Hotel Newton. Later he built a fine house 
on the present site of Hotel Adams. He owned 
large tracts of land on Chatham, Clinton and Irving 
streets, and in that section of the city which be- 
came very valuable as the period of rapid growth 
which made the town a city came in the forties, and 
they laecame in time some of the most valuable resi- 
dential property in the city. He died August, 1871, 
and the business ceased to exist soon afterward. 
Another patent iron turntable took the place of the 
Aldrich design, but at that time there was practically 
no railroad in the country that did not have the 
Aldrich turntable in use. They were built in Wor- 
cester and shipped in sections to all parts of the 
country and exported to foreign lands. Mr. Aldrich 
acquired large wealth for his day and invested it 
wisely. 

Mr. Aldrich was modest and retiring in dispo- 
sition, notwithstanding his material successes and 
his position in the business world, and was highly 
esteemed and respected in the community. During 
his last years he was in feeble health and was con- 
fined to his bed for a year before he died. He 
attended the First Universalist Church and later the 
Salem Square Congregational Church while Rev. 
Mr. Richardson was pastor. In politics he was a 
Whig, later a Republican, but never active in party 
aflfairs and never sought office. He was a member 
of no secret societies. He was a member of the 
Worcester County Mechanics Association. He mar- 
ried (second) Sophia Capron, widow, who survived 
him. The children of Paine and Sarah (Hammond) 
Aldrich were : Harriet, see forward ; Cyrenus, see 
forward. 



(VH) Harriet Aldrich, daughter of Pa